ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Williams News will be a horse on a mission here in Sunday's $1.5 million,. Grade 1 Canadian International.
A 6-year-old gelding owned by On Target Racing Stable and trained by Tom Amoss, Williams News was the victim of an very tough beat when he ran second here in last year's Canadian International.
What made the defeat so painful was not merely the fact that the photo finish camera showed Mutafaweq's nose first on the wire.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Burlington House will be looking for his eighth win of the year in Friday's featured first race for $20,000 claimers at Assiniboia Downs.
Trained by Leonard Anderson, Burlington House finished second after lacking room through most of the stretch in his last start, on Sept. 16. Anderson Ward will ride in the six-furlong race, which attracted a field of five.
Latter Day Ace, who beat Burlington House last time out, did so off a six-week layoff. Trained by Gordon Marsh, Latter Day Ace should take up a stalking position under rider Tim Gardiner.
Friday night's featured seventh race, an allowance, has a full field of 11. The six-furlong dash is a first level allowance for a $32,000 purse.
There are many betting possibilities in the race with the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained entry of Mining for Fun and Swedish Sights a tepid choice. Mining for Fun won by a half-length in his only local appearance on Sept. 1 against a band of $32,000 starters. Swedish Sights disappointed last out in allowance company at Del Mar but raced strongly in his previous start finishing second at the seaside oval.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Outofthebox, who gave trainer Bernie Flint his first Grade 1 win when he captured the $500,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs Sunday, was to be transferred to the care of Flint's son, Steve Flint, on Thursday. The transfer enables the younger Flint to set up a public stable after spending the past 22 years as his father's assistant. Steve Flint's chief clients will be Bertram, Elaine, and Richard Klein, who race Outofthebox.
Make It Anywhere, the winner of last year's PCQHRA Breeders' Futurity, starts in the Grade 2, $127,000 PCQHRA Breeders' Derby on Friday night at Los Alamitos. A son of leading sire First Down Dash and two-time champion producer Seperate Ways, Make It Anywhere made his sole stakes win a Grade 1 last year with the PCQHRA Breeders' Futurity. Make It Anywhere, owned by Francisco and Jose Gonsalez, came close to a second Grade 1 win when he was second in the Governor's Cup Derby on June 23.
PHOENIX - When the temperature finally gets down to the century mark or below, it signifies not only the start of fall, but the start of live racing in the Phoenix area. The 166-day Turf Paradise meet begins Friday with the $22,000 Bienvenido Stakes, a mile race for 3-year-olds and upward. Turf Paradise runs through May 19, 2001, primarily on a Friday-through-Tuesday basis, with holidays and special event changes altering the schedule.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Excuses, excuses, excuses. Funny thing is, handicappers analyzing the best race on the Oak Tree card Thursday may arrive at the sensible conclusion most of the alibis are legitimate. They are for Morocco.
Assistant trainer Gary Mandella said Morocco "may have had the worst trip at Del Mar of any of our horses."
He's not exaggerating. Morocco, dead last turning for home in a six-furlong sprint Aug. 17, was weaving deftly through traffic until his luck ran out at the eighth pole. He got stopped cold, and was blocked full of run the final sixteenth.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Rain has turned into trainer Chris Block's worst enemy. When Block decided to bypass the Grade 1 Beverly D. with the turf mare Ioya Two, he mapped out a late-summer campaign that would get Ioya Two to her winter quarters in Florida. Two months later, that plan has fallen apart, and Ioya Two has yet to run since winning the Grade 3 Modesty here in late July.
In August, rain washed the Reluctant Guest from turf onto the main track, and Block scratched Ioya Two. The same thing happened again last Saturday in the Top Corsage Stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Steady Ruckus, winner of last year's Bunty Lawless Stakes, will prep for another crack at that race in Thursday's allowance feature at Woodbine, a seven-furlong turf dash.
Steady Ruckus, a chestnut gelding by Bold Ruckus, won his first stakes in the 2000 Bunty Lawless, a one-mile grass race restricted to Ontario-sired runners. He battled up front through rapid fractions in that race, and won in a gutsy performance over Impeachable Sin and River Boat.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - For trainer Buddy Delp, most of the time he has spent campaigning Include over the last two seasons has been a trip down memory lane. As Include's star has risen in the handicap division, it makes sense that Delp would try him in some of the same races that Delp once dominated with Spectacular Bid.