ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stage Classic probably will be taking his show back on the road, this time to the British Columbia Derby Sept. 29.
"I've considered the McLaughlin," said Dave Cotey, trainer and co-owner of Stage Classic, a 3-year-old gelding who would have carried 117 pounds here in Saturday's Colonel R.S. McLaughlin Handicap.
"But I want to find an easier spot for him, and he'll be running for $200,000 instead of $100,000."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Meadow Gem, who won her first four starts before finishing second against older fillies and mares here in the Sept. 2 Seaway, could make her next start at Keeneland Oct. 10 in the $100,000 Raven Run, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies.
"We'll also nominate her to the Highlander," said Tiller, who trains Meadow Gem and is a co-owner of the Florida-bred, "but she'd be facing older horses, going six furlongs."
The Highlander, a Grade 3 handicap worth $150,000, will be run here Sept. 30.
POMONA, Calif. - Horse racing in Southern California has not picked up right where it left off. The Los Angeles County Fair re-opened Wednesday after a one-day shutdown due to the terrorist attracks on the East Coast, and racing officials at Fairplex Park face the challenge of regaining momentum and recovering lost revenue.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The lesson is not buried deep in the past. Six months ago, the 3-year-old colt Monarchos followed up a smashing win in the Florida Derby with a loss in the Wood Memorial. But even before the Wood, trainer John Ward publicly proclaimed that the race was a stepping-stone to a greater goal, the Kentucky Derby, which Monarchos won three weeks later.
FLORENCE, Ky. - A familiar fall tradition involving Turfway Park and its sister track, Kentucky Downs, begins Saturday.
A combined 16-race program, consisting of 10 races here at Turfway and six from Kentucky Downs, are scheduled. The card is the first of the seven-day meet at Kentucky Downs, the undulating, all-turf course just across the Tennessee border near the south-central Kentucky town of Franklin.
SAN MATEO, Calif.- Planoncometbebopin, who has won four of her six career starts, including two stakes, heads a field of nine 3-year-old fillies in the $50,000 Carmel Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Bay Meadows.
Planoncometbebopin finished fifth in a $32,000 maiden-claiming race in her career debut, but has been virtually flawless since then. She won her next start at the same level, then stretched out to a mile and won a $32,000 starter allowance race. After finishing third in an allowance race in her turf debut, she
BOSSIER CITY, La. - A diverse cast of seven fillies and mares will contest the $150,000 River Cities Breeders' Cup on Saturday, the beginning of the Super Derby Festival of Racing XXII at Louisiana Downs.
The likely favorites in the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes are Nanie's Dinner, a two-time stakes winner this meeting on turf, and the Frank Brothers-trained Watch, a recent winner on the Arlington turf.
MIAMI - For the second year in a row, south Florida's unpredictable summer weather has forced the $50,000 Noble Royalty to be switched from the turf to the main track and in the process reduced the starting lineup to a familiar group of five older fillies and mares. The 1 1/16-mile Noble Royalty will match the first three finishers from the Nancy's Glitter Stakes on Aug 25. in which Castlebrook rallied to a two length victory over Coolbythepool with Racing For Pahm finishing a tiring third.
AUBURN, Wash. - An overflow field of 13 2-year-olds, including a powerful three-horse stable coupling trained by Steve Bullock, has been entered to contest Saturday's 1 1/16 mile, $100,000 Gottstein Futurity at Emerald Downs.
The Bullock-trained entry has quality as well as numbers, as it includes WTBA Lads runner-up Star of Rehaan, three-time winner Moloch and the outstanding filly Ashbecca, who captured the one mile Barbara Shinpoch Stakes against her own sex when last seen on Sept. 2.