ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Less than 18 months ago, the future looked very bleak indeed for trainer Scotty McCulloch.
"I was on my death bed," said McCulloch, 47, who had been admitted to the hospital with severe liver problems. "It was June 2 - I remember the date. They told me I wouldn't live to see the next day."
McCulloch, however, was not about to go gentle into that good night.
"I was out in 10 days," he said, "and I was back at work the 11th day."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Blade Prospector, a very impressive winner over the Golden Gate Fields track last season, heads a strong field there in Friday's $100,000 Forty-Niner Handicap. The 1 1/16-mile contest over the main track drew a field of nine older handicap performers.
Blade Prospector led throughout to defeat Dixie Dot Com in the Berkeley Handicap last season and won twice during the 2000 campaign in only four starts. Thus far this season, Blade Prospector has two victories in eight starts to his credit.
The five remaining spots in the Grade 1, $500,000 Champion of Champions will be determined in the two Grade 3, $20,000 Z. Wayne Griffin Directors Trials held over 400 yards at Los Alamitos on Friday night.
The horses with the five fastest times in the Directors Trials will be eligible to run in the Champion of Champions on Dec. 16, closing night of the 2001 Los Alamitos season.
Five horses have qualified for the Champion of Champions by virtue of wins in selected Grade 1 stakes: A Ransom, Hawkinson, Tailor Fit, Corona Kool, and Marmet.
There's a red-hot battle going on in the trainers' race at Thistledown. Jerry Hollendorfer and Gary Johnson are tightly bunched, and through Monday's card Johnson has a two-winner edge, 17-15.
Hollendorfer shipped in with 35 head and is now down to 16. Twelve have been claimed and the others were sold. Johnson has haltered nine of his horses and Hollendorfer has claimed back two. Johnson has started five of the nine claimed horses and two have won. The two that were claimed back by Hollendorfer did not hit the board while going off as the odds-on choices.
Medium Rare, who has won four of his last six races, should get a perfect stalking trip behind a number of speed horses in the $25,000 Autumn Classic Handicap on Friday at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. Special post for the first race is 2:30 p.m. Central.
Others expected for the six-furlong race for Oklahoma-breds include front-runners Abbi's Choice, who just missed winning an overnight stakes in his last start; and Slewmeister, who worked a bullet five furlongs in 59.69 seconds in preparation for his first start since April 21.
It was a good week for the out-of-towners. Five Penn National shippers, four from Delaware Park, and three from Pimlico were among 18 invaders from eight different tracks that won races at Charles Town.
More than half of the week's 50 races drew full 10-horse fields, though late scratches reduced the number to 23 full fields. As proof of how competitive the racing has been, no trainer won more than two races and 47 trainers saddled at least one winner.
ANDERSON, Ind. - Records are made to . . . have an asterisk put beside them.
Sunday, leading rider Terry Thompson equalled a Hoosier Park record by winning six Thoroughbred races on a card. It was the third time this year he tied the record shared by Jon Court and Mike Morgan. Thompson then won for the seventh time on the 12-race card card in a Quarter Horse allowance.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Trainer Steve Fisher began the Portland Meadows meeting with four solid older stakes runners in his barn.
There was eight-time stakes winner Knight Cover, who was retired in a ceremony here last Saturday. There was Playfair stakes winner Wapato Wind, who was retired after cracking a sesamoid bone in a race on Nov. 11. There was local stakes winner Star Expresso, who is now 9 and recovering from a bout with pneumonia.
Purses at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., are expected to remain at their new, higher level of about $80,000 a day despite the setback the track suffered Tuesday when its gaming license was suspended by a district court in Baton Rouge, La.
Boyd Gaming, which took over ownership of Delta in May, had hoped to open a slots casino at the track by mid-December. The ruling, however, stopped the Louisiana Gaming Control Board from granting the track final approval of its casino layout during a meeting Tuesday.