ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mysteryachievement, fresh off a subpar performance on the main track, will experiment on the grass in Friday's Woodbine feature, a seven-furlong allowance for 3-year-old fillies.
Leading trainer Bob Tiller has been winning races in bunches this year, but has yet to find the mark at the meet with Mysteryachievement, who won a maiden special weight dash in her lone 2-year-old outing last Nov. 11.
MIAMI - Valid Forbes certainly earned a starting berth in the $250,000 Azalea Stakes here July 14, by finishing second against older horses while making her 3-year-old debut in Sunday's Born Famous Handicap. But with her stablemate Silk Concorde already pointing for the race, trainer Ralph Ziadie is considering splitting the pair instead of running them head to head as they did last summer when they took turns beating each other in the Florida Stallion Series.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Cliff Hopmans knew he was taking a calculated risk last fall when he gave up his position as director of horsemen's relations with the Ontario Jockey Club to return to a training game that he had left a decade earlier.
"Certainly I'd thought long and hard about the adversities of being a trainer," said Hopmans. "But when things do go right, the rewards are huge."
Hopmans will get to put that theory to the test here Sunday, when he saddles longshot Dawn Watcher in the $1 million Queen's Plate.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - There are many who believe Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate at Woodbine will boil down to a match race between the gelding Win City and the filly Dancethruthedawn.
Win City has won the last three stakes steppingstones to the $1 million Plate, including the 1 1/8-mile Plate Trial here June 2, while Dancethruthedawn enters the Plate off a victory in the 1 1/8-mile Labatt Woodbine Oaks here June 9.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hollywood Park turf races at 1 1/4 miles this week go through trainers Simon Bray and Bobby Frankel, who hold a preliminary scuffle in the seventh-race feature Thursday, three days before Astra and Happyanunoit battle Sunday in the Grade 1 Beverly Hills Handicap at the same trip.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - In Thursday's featured ninth race at Arlington, 10 fillies face off in a first-level turf allowance race. A battle also will rage between quantitative and qualitative analysis.
The question: Was St. Chapelle's maiden turf win as good as it looked?
Or do the numbers, a slow final time and a low Beyer Speed Figure, cut to the heart of the matter?
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Juan Serey has an excellent sprinter on his hands in Say Florida Sandy, a former claimer who won the $150,000 True North Handicap on the Belmont Stakes undercard. Serey has another gutsy sprinter in his Aqueduct barn, Unreal Madness, who has proven to be a gem in some tough spots against allowance runners this year.
Thursday at Belmont Park, Serey shoots for another win with Unreal Madness, a 6-year-old and a winner of $646,073, in a $52,000 money allowance race for older horses. Seven entered the six-furlong dirt race, the fifth on the card.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Early Tuesday, the connections for Tiznow were considering the possibility of retirement, but they breathed a sigh of relief after a nuclear scan revealed no signs of impairment to the colt's lower back. Co-owner Mike Cooper said Tiznow, the Horse of the Year in 2000, will train on, but there is still some concern about his status.
The outlook was not as positive earlier in the day, when Cooper, trainer Jay Robbins, and veterinarian Dr. Rick Arthur were awaiting results of the scan.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Jockey Corey Lanerie has rebounded in a big way. After a disappointing winter-spring meet at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, Lanerie leads the Lone Star standings by 25 wins, and as a result has earned his way into Friday night's National Thoroughbred Racing Association All-Star Jockey Championship.
