SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - It may well be an emotional scene at Marquis Downs on Friday evening when racing resumes five days after the death of Isiah Sala from head injuries sustained in a fall in the seventh race on Sunday.
Sala was the regular rider of Princess Briartic, the top older mare on the grounds and the favorite in Friday's Jim Beam Handicap. The Jim Beam is run at 1 1/16 miles for a $6,000 purse.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Prairie Meadows racing secretary Jay Johnson is at home dealing with Midwestern horseman and racing officials but soon his home will be halfway around the world. Johnson has accepted a position with the Emirates Racing Association and will move to Dubai at the beginning of October.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - The wins keep coming for jockey Terry Houghton. The top rider at this western Michigan oval swept all three of last week's stakes and pushed his total wins at the meet to 154, more than twice as much as his nearest competitor. Houghton is winning at a 26 percent clip, with nearly 60 percent of his mounts finishing in the money.
On Friday evening, Houghton was aboard Born to Dance ($2.20), a Kentucky invader who was a handy winner for trainer James Jackson in the Temptress Stakes.
COLUMBUS, Neb. - The compact jockey colony has taken several hits over the last few weekends. Dennis Collins and Dan Beck will likely sit out the remainder of this meet, which runs through Sept. 16, because of injuries sustained and reaggravated in the past week.
Jerry Jewell injured his ribs in Saturday evening's second race when his mount, Eaton Canyon, broke down in midpack going into the final turn of the 6 1/2-furlong maiden race. Jewell took off the remainder of his mounts that night but returned to ride on Sunday.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Apprentice Martin "Jose" Escobar scored his first career victory in Sunday's fourth race on D K Dickens with a clever rail-skimming trip.
A 27-year-old native of Mexico, Escobar is no stranger to Canterbury. He began his career 11 years ago as a hotwalker for trainer Bernell Rhone and worked as a groom and shed foreman before becoming one of the stable's regular exercise riders. Escobar and Rhone's son, Scott, are a familiar sight as they take sets of horses in tandem to the track under the black and red saddlecloths of the Rhone barn.
MIAMI - When trainer Bill White saddles Blissful Kiss a week from Saturday in the seven-furlong Susan's Girl Stakes, he may feel like General Custer at Little Big Horn. White's filly will be surrounded in the Susan's Girl, middle leg of the filly division of the Florida Stallion Series, by as many as three rivals from the barn of Ralph Ziadie.
Blissful Kiss was the heavy favorite to win the opening leg of the Stallion Series, the six-furlong Desert Vixen Stakes, but she lost to the undefeated Pharmstar, trained by Ziadie, who rallied to a 4 3/4-length victory.
AUBURN, Wash. - With the 66th Longacres Mile now in the books, it's time for younger horses to take center stage at Emerald Downs. That is what will happen on Thursday's program, which is headed by a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies that has drawn an extraordinarily well-credentialed cast of nine.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That should be the motto of Personal Pro, who rallied from a good position just off the pace to win the $150,000 Albany Stakes for New York bred 3-year-olds at Saratoga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - For the first time sincebefore the Triple Crown, Point Given did not draw the far outside post in Wednesday morning's post position draw for the 132nd running of the Travers Stakes, which was held in the spacious paddock at Saratoga.