ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Shaws Creek, who should be a tepid favorite in Sunday's , wound up with the outside post when a field of 14 was entered Thursday at Woodbine.
The Queen's Plate, a 1 1/4-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, will be worth $1 million.
Pat Quinn, general manager and coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was the special guest for the draw, a two-part process in which one draw was held to determine the order of selection and the connections then chose their post positions.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Timely Ruckus, Alberta's champion sprinter for each of the last four years, will face a formidable new foe, invader Spanish Banks, in the $40,000 Journal Handicap at Northlands Park on Saturday.
Both Timely Ruckus, who will be ridden by Stephan Heiler, and Spanish Banks, with Anthony Stephen aboard, will carry 119 pounds in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint, which attracted a field of five.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Cruising Kat looks like a lukewarm choice over six other three-year-olds in a $50,000 optional race for non-winners of two races at Hastings Park Saturday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint is the seventh of 13 races.
Cruising Kat showed stakes potential when he beat entry level allowance horses at Golden Gate in December, but hasn't made an impact in four straight added-money events.
AUBURN, Wash. - Always a Dixie will be out to show that her surprising victory in last month's Washington State Legislators Stakes was no fluke when she takes on 10 other older fillies and mares in Saturday's one-mile, $40,000 King County Handicap at Emerald Downs.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The third season of Godolphin Racing's 2-year-old campaign in the United States begins on Saturday when Parhelion makes his career debut in a five-furlong maiden race at Hollywood Park.
This season, expectations are even higher for Godolphin after the success of the last two years. Under the direction of trainer Eoin Harty, Godolphin will have divisions at Arlington Park and in Southern California.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Sharp Performance, who suffered severe injuries to the ligaments in both his forelegs in the Fort Marcy Handicap on April 27, was euthanized on June 9 at Belmont Park.
Sharp Performance's trainer, David Donk, said the 4-year-old colt developed an infection in his left foreleg in the tendon sheath. It was hoped that Sharp Performance, a graded stakes winner, could be saved for stud duty even though his racing career was over.
SALEM, N.H. - It is June and the biggest races in New England are taking place. That must mean Jerry Bailey, trainer Bill Mott, and the Allen Paulson Trust colors are poised to head to the winner's circle.
That Hall of Fame team will send the formidable Del Mar Show north to Rockingham Park for the 23rd running of the Grade 3, $200,000 New Hampshire Sweepstakes - the most prestigious grass race in New England and the showpiece of the Rock's season.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Snow Dance is on the longest losing streak of her grass-racing career: all of two races.
The consistent Snow Dance has won 6 of 10 turf starts, but she was beaten by an ultra-game Tates Creek in April, then finished fifth in the ultra-tough Vanity last month.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Leslie's Love, a turf specialist looking for her first stakes win, meets Southern Tour, a stakes winner who has never raced on turf, in the $75,000 Miller Lite at Lone Star Park on Saturday.
The five-furlong turf race for fillies and mares drew five others, including stakes winners Little Angel and Darlin Dixie.
Leslie's Love can do no wrong on turf these days. She has won the past four turf sprints she has entered, her latest coming on June 1 at Lone Star in an allowance prep for the Miller Lite.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Spain, the richest mare in North American racing history with more than $3.5 million in earnings, will make her next start in the Grade 2, $300,000 Molly Pitcher Handicap at Monmouth June 29, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Thursday.
Spain won the Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs by 3 1/4 lengths last Saturday and will return in the Molly Pitcher off two weeks' rest. Lukas said Spain, who is in foal to Storm Cat, came out of the Fleur de Lis in good shape, leading to his decision to run her back quickly.