MUSKEGON, Mich. - Trainer Ronnie Allen capped off the racing week with victories by I Match Too in the Moonbeam Handicap and Above the Wind in the Michigan Breeders' Governor's Cup Handicap. Both races, worth $45,000 each, were contested at 1 1/16 miles and restricted to Michigan-breds.
Longshot I Match Too ($23.60) stayed close to the pace and was up to win by a neck over Tank Grrrl. Empress Livia was 1 1/2 lengths back in third. Roberto Perez was aboard for the win.
Hackendiffy, winner of the Hoover Stakes last weekend, will be pointed to the $200,000 Cradle Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Labor Day, owner David Eigel said. Eigel said that Hackendiffy, who won the Cleveland Kindergarten at Thistledown before the Hoover, is following the same route Harlan's Holiday took to the Cradle last year.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The light schedule that trainer Jonathan Sheppard mapped out for It's a Giggle this spring was designed to bring him into the Saratoga meet prepared to knock off this track's two main races for steeplechase runners in a bid for a year-end championship. It's a Giggle can clear the first of those jumps on Thursday, when he heads a field of six in the $75,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase Handicap.
If you want to see them go up . . . and over, arrive early. The Smithwick is the first race on a nine-race card.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Dean Greenman has big expectations for his two starters on Thursday's card at Del Mar - Yet Anothernatalie in the second race and Groom on the Run in the featured seventh.
"I hope to win two," he said.
Neither horse is likely to be favored. Each runs in a turf race over 1 1/16 miles.
Yet Anothernatalie starts in a $62,500 claiming race, her first start for Tommy Town Thoroughbreds and Greenman after being claimed in a six-way shake for $50,000 on July 26. Thursday's race marks Yet Anothernatalie's first start around two turns.
CHICAGO - Trainer Dave Vance knew a year ago that Kiss the Devil was a long-term project. Yes, the filly could run, but she also was immature, growthy, and perhaps not the brightest horse in the world.
On July 25 at Arlington you got to see why Kiss the Devil was worth the time and effort. Eleven starts after she had cleared her first allowance condition, Kiss the Devil finally won again.
But she didn't just win. She aired, cruising away from eight rivals at the top of the stretch for a six-length victory, running the last of nine furlongs in less than 12 seconds.
AUBURN, Wash. - Youth will be served at Emerald Downs on Thursday when four of the eight races on the card, including the feature, are for 2-year-olds.
The feature, which goes as the seventh race, will see a field of five juvenile fillies, each eligible to be claimed for $25,000 or $20,000, run over 5 1/2 furlongs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Puzzlement, winner of a second-level allowance race here on July 24, began preparations Tuesday for the $1 million Travers on Aug. 24 with an easy five-furlong move timed in 1:05.25 over the main track.
While the move was the second slowest of 23 at the distance, Saratoga's main track has slowed down considerably following a weekend that produced extremely fast times and tended to favor inside speed runners. Only two five-furlong works on Tuesday were timed in under 1:01.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The law of averages is one of the few angles working for Irguns Angel when she faces the red-hot Azeri in Sunday's $300,000 Clement Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar.
"Azeri doesn't have to win every single race she's in," said Ron Anson, who owns Irguns Angel.
A top contender for the Breeders' Cup Distaff in October, Azeri has won four consecutive Grade 1 races and will be heavily favored to win the Grade 2 Hirsch, run over 1 1/16 miles.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Soon after watching his top juvenile, Valid Video, win his racing debut June 14 by an impressive 2 1/2 lengths and clock five furlongs in a rapid 57.11 seconds, trainer Dennis Manning made a statement that seems unusual in today's racing industry.
"You won't see him for a while," he said. "I'll give him a break and train him right up to the Sapling."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Chuck Peery has no complaints about the northern California fair circuit. That's what 13 victories and a better than 30 percent win ratio will do.
Nonetheless, he's glad for the sake of Optic Diversion to be back at Bay Meadows.
Optic Diversion is a 3-year-old gelding with two wins and two seconds in eight starts. One win and two seconds have come in his three races on the Bay Meadows turf, where he will run in Thursday's co-feature at the Bay Meadows Fair.