After the first two weeks of the Hawthorne fall meet Shane Laviolette was atop the rider standings with 13 wins, three ahead of Randall Meier. Meier scored a stakes double last Saturday riding the winners of the $75,000 Lightning Jet and the $75,000 Powerless at the Cicero, Ill., track.
Hawthorne Hall of Fame jockey Ray Sibille, tied for fourth in the standings through Sunday, plans to shift his tack to the Fair Grounds when it opens on Thanksgiving Day next week.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - With less than three weeks remaining in the turf season in New York, trainers are hoping to get one more race out of their grass horses before laying them up or shipping them south.
The spate of good weather in the East has given trainers ample opportunity to do that, making for some terrific betting races at Aqueduct.
A case in point is Thursday's feature, a third-level allowance race at one mile for fillies and mares, which drew a contentious field of 10 betting interests.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Seven of them have tried stakes, and a couple have actually won one. As a group, the 11 fillies and mares scheduled to clash Thursday in the eighth-race feature at Churchill Downs form a classy bunch, although most racing fans merely will want to know who is classy enough to prevail on this particular afternoon.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Six starts into Disturbingthepeace's career, trainer Darrell Vienna expected him to already have leaped past the first allowance condition for California-breds.
"It's unbelievable he's still eligible to this condition, the condition that is supposed to be so easy," Vienna said.
Turns out, it's not so easy after all, and as Vienna admitted: "It's a testimony to the Cal-breds that he [Disturbingthepeace] runs these big races and doesn't win."
Heaven Came Down tries for her fourth win in five starts in Thursday's $34,000 third race, a second-level allowance at six furlongs that attracted a field of six.
Heaven Came Down has turned out to be a profitable claim for trainer Tim Pinfield. He claimed the 5-year-old mare in June at Hollywood Park for $12,500, and in her next start she led throughout to win a $16,000 claiming race at Del Mar by four lengths.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Two years after nearly winning the Red Smith Handicap, Williams News will give it another try on Saturday at Aqueduct. The Red Smith, the final turf stakes of the year in New York, is a Grade 2 race run at 12 furlongs and carries a purse of $150,000.
In the 1999 Red Smith, Williams News made the lead in midstretch only to pull himself up, according to his trainer, Tom Amoss. That allowed Monarch's Maze to get past him and win by a length. It's a race Amoss recalls well.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A Grade 1 showdown among California's three leading 2-year-olds - Siphonic, Came Home, and Officer - may be put on hold, as Came Home's status for the Dec. 15 Hollywood Futurity has gone from probable to doubtful.
"I don't think he's going to run, the way the owners are talking," trainer Paco Gonzalez said Tuesday. "It's too bad, because it's going to be a small field."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Phil England is in the process of winding down his operation here and sending horses to Ocala, Fla., where he will train at Classic Mile Farm.
One England runner who will be getting a head start on the trip south is Lodge Hill, who will stop off at Aqueduct for Saturday's Red Smith Handicap.
Lodge Hill, a 4-year-old colt owned by Eugene and Laura Melnyk and R. Bristow Farm, last ran in the Breeders' Cup Turf, finishing eighth in the field of 11.
