SHAKOPEE, Minn. - J. P. Jet will be the clear favorite in the $50,000-added Minnesota Derby for statebred 3-year-olds Saturday at Canterbury Park. Also Saturday, statebred 3-year-old fillies will run in the $50,000-added Minnesota Oaks.
J. P. Jet dominated last year in the Northern Lights Futurity here. He looked just as impressive this year when he captured the Victor S. Myers Jr. Stakes in June by four lengths.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Few realize how hard trainer Brian Koriner had to work as he guided Hoovergetthekeys to victories in the Golden Gate and El Camino Real derbies last year.
The hard work has never stopped and may be paying off as Koriner prepares Hoovergetthekeys for Saturday's $100,000 Joseph T. Grace Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair.
Hoover getthekeys scored his first stakes victory as a 4-year-old in his last start in the Alamedan Handicap on July 7 at Pleasanton, rallying through the stretch and holding off late-finishing Takin It Deep by a nose.
Last Shall Be First, undefeated in three starts this year and coming off a win in the Grade 1, $136,000 Governor's Cup Derby, will attempt to continue her winning streak Saturday night at Los Alamitos in the trials to the Grade 1, $207,800 Golden State Derby.
The 10 fastest qualifiers from the two trials at 400 yards return for the finals on Aug. 17.
Last Shall Be First, second in the 2001 Governor's Cup Futurity, has moved into championship consideration this year with a win in the Dash for Speed Handicap to go with her Governor's Cup Derby victory.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Most of the trainers saddling horses in Sunday's Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park have been there and done that. Not so for Nancy Alberts, whose fresh entrance onto the national stage has come this year with Magic Weisner, the Preakness Stakes runner-up whom she bred, trains, and owns.
Horseplayers may want to pay attention to the six Ohio-bred 2-year-olds who will run in the $40,000 Hoover Stakes at River Downs on Saturday.
The notion that a good horse can come from anywhere was undercored by last year's Hoover. The winner, Harlan's Holiday, established himself as a top 3-year-old, winning the Florida Derby and Blue Grass Stakes, and was the favorite in the Kentucky Derby.
Also emerging from last year's Hoover was U S S Tinosa, who placed twice in graded stakes in California this spring and finished sixth in the Preakness.
LAFAYETTE, La. - The $30,000 Bayouland Sales Stakes, second leg of the Evangeline's three-race series for 2-year-olds, has a field of 12. The entrants qualified for the five-furlong race through two trials.
Trial winners Legs O'Neal and Lamarche's Oro should vie for favoritism. Legs O'Neal outfinished favored Prime Time Suzie in qualifying, and covered the five furlongs in 59.60 seconds over a fast track.
Golden Rhythm, who has taken her game to another level since she started racing on turf, is in a good position to pick up her first stakes win Saturday night in the $50,000 Margarita Breeders' Cup Handicap at Retama Park near San Antonio.
The 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares drew a field of 11.
Hal Wiggins admits Saturday's $50,000 Audubon Oaks at Ellis Park is an experiment to see if Lotta Rhythm, a 3-year-old filly he trains, can transfer her stakes-winning dirt form to turf.
Working in her favor is that many of her opponents also are experimenting. Some are being tested for class, with hikes from allowance races, and others are trying grass for the first time.
Bop has run some big turf races in Virginia in the past two seasons. How will he do when he crosses the Mason-Dixon line and visits Pennsylvania?
That's a big question for handicappers attempting to decipher Saturday's 30th running of the Pennsylvania Governor's Cup Handicap at Penn National.
The $50,000 Governor's Cup, slated as the second race on the nine-race card, will be contested at five furlongs on turf for the first time. Previously, it was a 1 1/16-mile grass race.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Barb Heads was born in British Columbia and is stabled at Hastings Park. Her father was recently inducted into the B.C. horse racing Hall of Fame, and she is a strong supporter of Thoroughbred racing in B.C. She also likes the concept of the B.C. Cup, in which seven stakes races restricted to B.C.-breds are run on a single day.