Audix, a recent claim for $50,000 at Santa Anita, will try to make a quick return for his new connections in Thursday's featured fourth race at Golden Gate Fields.
The 1 1/16-mile, $32,000 allowance race for 3-year-olds will be contested over the Lakeside turf course.
Audix finished a game third in his last appearance in a mile grass race on Oct. 31. He was beaten just a length in a fast time of 1:34.69 and ships north to try this first level allowance group.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Include arrived at Churchill Downs in mid-morning Tuesday after an uneventful overnight van ride from Maryland and was bedded down in the barn of trainer Bill Mott, where he will reside until running Friday in the $400,000 Clark Handicap.
Include, trained by Grover "Bud" Delp, is the 120-pound highweight in a prospective field of nine in the Grade 2 Clark, the traditional highlight of the Churchill fall meet. Pat Day has the mount.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The thrill of winning his first Breeders' Cup race was so intense, said Dallas Stewart, that he "didn't even think about, before or after," at whose expense the victory came.
It came at the direct expense of D. Wayne Lukas, his boss for 11 years.
The race was the $2 million BC Distaff on Oct. 27 at Belmont Park. Spain, the defending champion, momentarily appeared to be a runaway winner for Lukas, but then Unbridled Elaine, trained by Stewart, came streaking from left field to snatch victory by a head.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It's a rare occurrence when a maiden $50,000 claimer can steal the spotlight.
But that's exactly what happened here at Woodbine last weekend when Classic Mike, a 2-year-old first-time starter, recorded a 13-length victory in last Saturday's fifth race.
NEW ORLEANS - Ask about anyone on the Fair Grounds backstretch which trainer is set up for a blockbuster meet here and one name keeps surfacing: Steve Asmussen.
Tom Amoss, the eight-time leading trainer here who tied with Asmussen for last year's title, summed up the situation. "He's got tremendous quality in his stable, and he's got numbers," Amoss said. "He's going to be tough to beat."
NEW ORLEANS - The notion that Fair Grounds is a desirable place to train a horse during the winter has attained common currency among horsemen throughout the country. Between the good vibe the track gives off and Hialeah Park's closure cutting into the number of available stalls in south Florida this year, Fair Grounds will launch what should be an especially strong meet Thursday, with an infusion of new stables bolstering a horse population that has been gaining quality for several years.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The distance of the Cigar Mile might not be ideal for Graeme Hall, but the race's Grade 1 rating holds a significant attraction for the horse's connections.
*, who is expected to race again next year, has won three Grade 2 races, the Jim Dandy, Arkansas Derby, and Eclipse, and the Grade 3 Stuyvesant. But a Grade 1 victory has eluded him.
The holidays are a time to be spent with loved ones, but this week, Gander is going to have to go it alone. He will have to leave his steady companion, Heather's Promise, back at Belmont Park, and venture to the wilds of Kentucky all by his lonesome. Time to buck up.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Led by an international cast of stars featuring Breeders' Cup runner-ups Forbidden Apple and Spook Express* (click here for lifetime PP's), and such highly regarded stakes runners as Aldebaran, El Cielo, Golden Apples, Irish Prize, Janet, Starine, Startac, Swept Overboard, Tranquility Lake, and Western Pride, Hollywood Park's Autumn Turf Festival promises to offer some of its best racing in years.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Fonz's, the winner of Saturday's Hollywood Prevue Stakes* (click here for chart), is the latest horse owned by David LaCroix's Meadowbrook Farms Inc. who was named for a restaurant.
Most of the horses LaCroix races are sold if they do well enough, such as Meetyouathebrig, named for a restaurant near Del Mar. But Fonz's remained with LaCroix after a potential sale this summer fell through because, LaCroix said, Fonz's did not pass a veterinary exam performed by the potential buyer.
