LEXINGTON, Ky. - The $500,000 Overbrook Spinster Stakes, the definitive Midwest test for North America's fillies and mares, has so many possble outcomes that even the trainers involved will feel some degree of relief after it has been run.
"What're you going to do?" asked David Vance, who will saddle 3-year-old Unbridled Elaine in a rugged field of 10. "This is the time of year you do your deal."
Past You, second in the Bustles and Bows Stakes at Pomona in her last race, looks to have found a good spot to gain her first stakes victory as she takes on five rivals in Sunday's $50,000-added Courtship Stakes. The six-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies will be run as the eighth race on the nine-race Sunday program.
Skipjack should get all the pace he needs up front to fuel his late run Sunday in the $30,000 Norman Stakes at Remington Park, thanks to the presence of sprinters Pogamoggan, Abbi's Choice and Red Work in the one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds, which has drawn 11.
ANDERSON, Ind. - Older Indiana-bred sprinters close out Derby weekend at Hoosier Park with a field of seven going six furlongs in the $40,000-added William Henry Harrison Stakes.
Special Express and J D's Diamond, the one-two finishers in this race a year ago, both return in search of last year's winning ways. The pair share identical marks of four wins from 15 starts but have gotten there via different routes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Kiss a Native, the country's champion 3-year-old of 2000, will clash with this year's probable champion 3-year-old, Win City, and three other accomplished runners in Sunday's $160,950 Durham Cup Handicap at Woodbine.
A Fleets Dancer, the 120-pound highweight, could be favored in the 1 1/8-mile fixture because of the company he has been keeping. He took the Grade 3 Dominion Day Handicap here July 1, and has since placed in three graded stakes in the U.S.
Robert Landry has the call on A Fleets Dancer for trainer Roger Attfield.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Magic Dancer, dropping out of stakes company, and Wanna Begone, who has won her last three starts, all for a tag, look like the ones to beat in an allowance race for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles at Hastings Park this Sunday afternoon.
ELMONT, N.Y. - If the California-based juveniles are as good as they seem, Sunray Sprit is the one to beat in Sunday's $100,000, Grade 3 Cowdin Stakes at Belmont Park.
A son of 1995 Breeders' Cup Juvenile runner-up Hennessy, Sunray Spirit comes to New York off a two-length maiden victory at Del Mar in his third career start. His final time of 1:03.10 was the fastest 5 1/2 furlongs of the Del Mar meeting, and he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 101, nearly 20 points higher than any of his Cowdin rivals have registered.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - It didn't really matter that Saturday in May's turf experiment was put on hold last month. When the allowance race he was entered in was moved from turf to a sloppy main track, Saturday in May ran anyway and won for the second straight time.
The urge to see what this promising colt can do on grass still exists, and so his connections, owner Peter Blum and trainer Mike Stidham, entered Saturday in May in Sunday's Steinlen Stakes, a $50,000-added overnight race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Of the eight horses to have won Grade 1 races for Bobby Frankel this year, Aptitude may be the one that gets the least respect.
Unlike others in his barn such as Flute and Lido Palace, Frankel has to play cheerleader as well as trainer for Aptitude, who a year ago at this time was still eligible for his preliminary allowance condition and had yet to win a dirt race.