SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding Medaglia d'Oro, he remains eligible for a second-level allowance race and hasn't won a race in 140 days.
Still, as one of only three horses to have competed in all three Triple Crown races this spring - and hailing from the dynamic duo of Bobby Frankel and Jerry Bailey - Medaglia d'Oro figures a solid favorite in Sunday's $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. - There are no money-back guarantees when a former star attempts redemption on the racetrack. Congaree once might have crushed a field like the one he faces Sunday, but skeptical bettors will consider the front-runner vulnerable Sunday in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar.
Congaree emerged last year as one of the nation's top 3-year-olds by winning the Wood Memorial and Swaps Stakes, and also finishing third in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. An injury in August sidelined him for nine months, and cast doubt on his racing career. The questions linger.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Total Impact, second in the $2 million United Arab Emirates Derby at Nad al-Sheba in March, will be favored to win a $61,000 allowance race on Sunday that could serve as a prep to the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 25.
Total Impact has yet to start in a stakes in the United States. He has run in two allowance races in California, including a fourth as a strong favorite at Hollywood Park on May 8.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Clearly a Queen has been a different horse since coming to the barn of Terri Pompay at Monmouth, and she guns for her second consecutive Grade 3 win in the $100,000 Eatontown Handicap at Monmouth Sunday, the highlight of the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational undercard.
The Eatontown, run as the eighth race on a 12-race card, drew a field of nine at nine furlongs on the turf.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Bob Baffert, who received a $50,000 appearance fee for bringing War Emblem to Monmouth Park for the $1 million Haskell Invitational, said Friday that half the fee would be donated to charity.
In a statement, Baffert said that the fee was paid by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which owns Monmouth, and that the fee had played no role in War Emblem's off-and-on status for the race, which will be run Sunday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Nick Zito missing the Kentucky Derby is like the New York Yankees missing the playoffs.
But twice in the last three years Zito has been a spectator for the nation's most prestigious horse race, a race Zito won twice in the early 1990's and one in which he has run 12 horses since 1990. Zito missed this year's Derby because a number of his promising juveniles from a year ago suffered a variety of infirmities.
"A lot of people know us for that reason," Zito said of his two Derby and one Preakness victory. "So it was a little disappointing."
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Mandy's Gold brought her road show to Saratoga on Friday and once again played to rave reviews, leading throughout to post a 1 3/4-length victory over Shine Again in the $100,000 Honorable Miss Handicap. Gold Mover, the 3-2 favorite in a field of six fillies and mares, finished a non-threatening fourth in the Grade 3 race, run over a sloppy track.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Cathy's Star and Miss Sandy Dee will be meeting for the third time at Assiniboia Downs in Sunday's $30,000 Winnipeg Sun Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.
Miss Sandy Dee was 2 3/4 lengths better than Cathy's Star when she won the 5 1/2-furlong Victoria Day Stakes in their first encounter here May 20.
But Cathy's Star turned the tables on Miss Sandy Dee here July 1, winning the one-mile Canada Day by a half-length.
AUBURN, Wash. - Handy N Bold has won the last three runnings of the $60,000 Governor's Handicap, which will be contested on Sunday. He will not win the 6 1/2-furlong race for a fourth straight time.
"He chipped an ankle in a workout, and we had the chip removed last Thursday," said his trainer, Charles Essex. "He is out for the year."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Le Cinquieme Essai, the winner of Fort Erie's July 21 Prince of Wales, was one of the leading candidates for next Saturday's $500,000 Breeders' Stakes, but he will not be keeping that date.
Paul Nielsen, who trains Le Cinquieme Essai at Fort Erie for owner Bill Scott, said Le Cinquieme Essai had "spiked a temperature of 103" here Friday morning. Nielsen had brought Le Cinquieme Essai to Woodbine Tuesday to prepare for the $500,000 Breeders', the 1 1/2-mile turf race that is the final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.