ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Handicappers may be in a quandary when pondering which version of High Speed Travel will show up in Friday's eighth race at Woodbine.
Will it be the High Speed Travel who won the 2000 Vice Regent Stakes, or will it be the one who has thrown craps in two of his three outings this year?
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A slow starter in a sprint is typically at a disadvantage. That is why trainer Ron McAnally is reluctant to endorse Gabriellina Giof when she makes her U.S. debut Friday at Hollywood Park in the the $70,000 Manhattan Beach Stakes.
"I don't know if she can get up at five and a half [furlongs]," McAnally said, predicting "she'll probably walk out of the gate and come running at the end."
Turfway Park officials announced Wednesday that Lane's End Farm has agreed to a three-year contract to sponsor the track's signature race for 3-year-olds, beginning next year. The agreement culminates a lengthy search by Turfway for a sponsor for the race known in recent years as the Spiral, Jim Beam, and Gallery Furniture.com Stakes.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Her trainer doesn't think she's the best filly in the country, but License Fee gets a chance to keep one of the best streaks in the female ranks alive when she travels to Monmouth Park Saturday for the Grade 2, $300,000 Molly Pitcher Breeders' Cup Handicap.
A winner of three straight graded stakes on turf and dirt, she will be the starting highweight in the 1 1/16-mile contest.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Mark Hennig has already won six stakes this year with his talented group of 3-year-old fillies. Saturday, he'll be looking for a bigger prize when he sends out the talented duo of Mystic Lady and Tap Dance in the Grade 1, $250,000 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park.
Mystic Lady and Tap Dance appear to have usurped Gold Mover, Raging Fever, and With Ability as the top fillies in Hennig's barn. Those three won eight stakes last year for Hennig, but have not done as well at 3.
PLEASANTON, Calif. - Dancing Marci, who once ran for $2,500 at Los Alamitos, makes her first start for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer in the $32,000 allowance feature at Pleasanton on Friday, and she looks like the one to beat.
An overflow field of 13 entered the race, which will be the ninth on the card and is restricted to fillies and mares, 3 and up, who have not won $3,000 other than maiden or claiming. The distance is six furlongs.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Elaborate may be the defending champion of Sunday's $300,000 Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park, but he will largely be ignored this weekend.
With the presence of the international sprint star Caller One and the exciting 3-year-old Squirtle Squirt, Elaborate's backers will get a good price in the seven-furlong Triple Bend.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Trainer Rickey Harris's stable, which housed 50 horses at its peak several years ago, has shrunk to three.
Fortunately, one of them is Fan Club's Mister, a 3-year-old turf stakes winner who will race Saturday at Arlington in the $200,000 Arlington Classic.
But Harris has been through worse than training a short string of runners. A car accident in Florida three years ago nearly killed her.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Exciting Story, winner of the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, will make his first start since that victory when he runs in Saturday's fourth race at Woodbine, a one-mile allowance on the grass.
Exciting Story sprung a 56-1 upset in the Met Mile at Belmont on May 28, when he came from off the pace in the mud to beat Peeping Tom by three-quarters of a length.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Larry Robideaux Jr. believes French Riviera can develop into his best filly ever. That's high praise from the man who trained Cinemine, a Grade 3 winner of $506,681; Affirmed Classic, a stakes winner of $455,030; and Fair Grounds Oaks winners My Charmer, dam of Horse of the Year Seattle Slew; and Honest and True, dam of champion Epitome.