STANTON, Del. - Like good news, or good looks, or piles of money, you can never have enough stakes-caliber fillies.
Indeed, when it comes to top-class fillies, one barn at Belmont Park houses an embarrassment of riches. Gold Mover, Raging Fever, With Ability, Mystic Lady, Tap Dance, and Unrestrained are all highly accomplished fillies to varying degrees, and each one is trained by Mark Hennig.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Sunday's Evan Shipman Handicap lost its headline name on Friday when trainer John Terranova decided not to run millionaire Gander, who would have been the heavy favorite and 124-pound highweight in the race for New York-breds.
With Terranova electing to give Gander more time in between races, the $75,000-added Evan Shipman drew eight older male runners. The 1 1/16-mile dirt race is the closing-day feature of the Belmont Park spring/summer meet. Racing shifts to Saratoga on Wednesday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jockey Todd Kabel had a difficult decision to make regarding which Sam-Son Farm runner to ride on Sunday.
Kabel could have ridden Ford Every Stream in the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown at Fort Erie, but opted instead to ride the 7-year-old stalwart, Quiet Resolve, the favorite in the $336,300 Chinese Cultural Center Stakes at Woodbine.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - T J's Lucky Moon, 82-1 winner of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine June 23, will be out to prove he's the genuine article in Sunday's $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.
But there are plenty of skeptics and a full field of 12 going to the post in the Prince of Wales, a 1 3/16-mile race that is the second leg of Canada's Triple Crown.
The 67th running of the Prince of Wales will go as the eighth race on a card that also includes two $60,000 stakes, the Benburb and Border Cup.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Seainsky was lucky to live through a serious case of pneumonia this winter. His luck is holding. A third-place finish three weeks ago in the Arlington Classic makes Seainsky look pretty good for Sunday's American Derby at Arlington Park, which, for a $225,000 Grade 2, has come up a weak race.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The $250,000 Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park on Sunday lost its top contender on Friday when trainer Bobby Frankel said that Super Quercus wouldn't run because of an ankle injury.
Super Quercus was the 122-pound topweight for the Grade 2 Sunset and would have been favored on the strength of his three-race winning streak. Frankel said X-rays are scheduled to determine the extent of the injury. "It's nothing major, but it's enough to keep him out of the race," he said.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Although neither horse has won a race on the grass, the entry of Good Company and Yatsko is likely to go off as the favorite in the eight-horse field in the Benburb, one of two $60,000 supporting features on the Prince of Wales card at Fort Erie Sunday.
The other supporting feature is the Border Cup, for fillies and mares. Both stakes are scheduled for
1 1/16 miles on the turf and are restricted to Canadian-breds who have had at least two 2002 starts at Fort Erie.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - He came, he saw, he conquered. After just one full season and a third of another here, jockey Rene Douglas rules the Arlington rider colony, plain and simple.
Last season, Douglas won 134 races here, more than double the total of his closet pursuer. The emergence of the hot apprentice Elvis Trujillo has kept this jockey's race tighter than expected, but Trujillo has lost his bug now and Douglas is pulling away. After Thursday, he led by nine wins with 50.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Owner-trainer Deanne Davies has an interesting problem as the signature race of the Klondike Days portion of the season approaches next Saturday.
Should Davies take a shot at continuing the fight for Alberta's divisional title for older horses by entering her remarkable athlete, Sixthirtyjoe, in the $40,000 Klondike Handicap at 1 1/16 miles?
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Commodore Craig will be the one that eight other 3-year-olds will be chasing in Sunday's $35,000 Jim Coleman Province, a 1 1/16-mile race at Hastings Park.
The most likely one to run him down is Blowin In Wind, who finished a fast-closing second in the Burnaby Breeders' Cup June 29.
