Trainer Gerald Romero, who is winning races at a 45 percent rate in his first season at Retama Park near San Antonio, can pick up his third stakes win of the meet Saturday night with Lost Agenda. Lost Agenda faces six others in the $35,000 Jim Bowie, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds that has also drawn Kris Havingfunnow, whose biggest career win came over the Retama course in last year's $100,000 El Joven.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Watch Me Fire, an impressive winner of the Loyalty Stakes in his last race, attempts to stretch his speed around two turns in Saturday's $75,000 Juvenile Stakes. Watch Me Fire will face 10 other Ohio-bred 2-year-olds in the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile Stakes.
Watch Me Fire assumed command entering the stretch in the Aug. 18 Loyalty and won by 6 1/2 lengths in 1:10.86 for six furlongs. He appeared to be well within himself that day, suggesting the 1 1/16 miles may be within his racing scope.
Nuclear Assembly seems to be getting better with each race. Known for his front-running ways, Nuclear Assembly showed a new dimension in his last start when he won from off the pace. His newfound running style and 4-for-5 record make him the one to beat Saturday in the $40,000 Minstrel at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La.
MIAMI, Fla. - In their only previous meeting, nearly six months ago at Gulfstream Park, Halo Reality and Happily Unbridled finished second and third in the Grade 2 Bonnie Miss Stakes. On Saturday, the pair will square off once again, for a more modest purse, in the $50,000 Judy's Red Shoes Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies at Calder.
Halo Reality and Happily Unbridled have both been lightly raced since the Bonnie Miss.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - On Saturday, Marty's Boy could become Fort Erie's winningest horse of the year. Nine runners have scored four times. Even more noteworthy is that it would be Marty's Boy's fifth consecutive triumph. All four wins were at the bottom claiming level of $5,000.
From post 3, the 5-year-old Marty's Boy will take on $7,500 claimers in a five-furlong turf dash that attracted 20 entrants, 10 of whom will go. The race was written for horses who have never won on the grass.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Collect Call has been competing with, and coming close to, some of the best 3-year-old fillies in the United States. But her trainer, Christopher Paasch, thought it was time to look for an easier spot for his talented filly and that's the main reason that Saturday's $175,000 British Columbia Breeders' Cup Oaks has attracted a horse with Grade 1 credentials.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When Affirmed Success came to town for the 2000 Atto Mile, he was a 6-year-old in the midst of a transition from main-track sprinter to turf miler.
And while his performance level on dirt has not waned, Affirmed Success is going into this year's Grade 1 Atto Mile on Sunday as one of the premier turf milers in North America.
Affirmed Success, owned by Albert Fried Jr. and trained by Rick Schosberg, made a successful turf debut in Belmont's one-mile Poker last year, and followed up with an allowance victory over 1 1/16 miles of grass at Saratoga.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A new favorite for the Grade 1 Atto Mile may have emerged Thursday after Irish Prize, who had been expected to rule the choice in a wide-open race, drew the outside post in a field of 14.
Irish Prize, who will be seeking his fourth straight graded turf stakes victory, was the early favorite in Sunday's $1 million turf race at Woodbine. But Irish Prize's unfavorable draw, combined with his highweight assignment of 124 pounds under the allowance conditions, may lead the public to lean slightly toward Affirmed Success.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The horse vans were rolling en masse out of the stable area at Del Mar on Thursday morning, carrying horses who had remained for Wednesday's closing-day card, but two of the departees will have only a brief stay in Los Angeles before heading to New York.