Gerald Reed's Meter Me Rockin brings surprising fastest-qualifier status into the finals of the Grade 1, $430,788 Ruidoso Futurity at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday afternoon.
The Ruidoso Futurity is first of three Grade 1 futurities at the New Mexico track. The Rainbow Futurity will be held on July 22, and the All American Futurity is on Labor Day. No horse has swept all three races since world champion Special Effort in 1981.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Ricky Frazier, a career winner of 2,374 races, is one of two recent additions to the northern California jockey colony.
Frazier, 37, checked in to Bay Meadows last week and won two races over the weekend and one Thursday.
Jose Pietri, an apprentice who tacks 108 pounds, arrived here Tuesday and has six wins.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Hoovergetthekeys and Sea to See, perhaps northern California's two best 3-year-olds, will meet in the $100,000, Grade 3 Ascot Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the Bay Meadows turf Saturday.
The two local luminaries figure to be among the favorites, but will get competition in the race from the Bobby Frankel-trained Marine, and possibly Times Square.
STICKNEY, Ill. - A day after Langston was to have started as a short-priced favorite in Hawthorne's Saturday feature, owner Frank Calabrese and trainer Wayne Catalano come right back with another heavy favorite Sunday. Golden Antigua, like Langston a turf horse, should have no peer in the closing-day feature here.
The race is for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on grass, and is open to $40,000 claimers or fourth-level allowance horses.
MIAMI - Friday's Acorn Stakes drew a strong field of 3-year-old fillies but among those not in attendance for the opening leg of New York's Triple Tiara was the Calder-based Two Item Limit, who passed the one-turn, one-mile race to await the 1 1/8-mile Mother Goose Stakes on June 30.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Now is the time of year when 3-year-olds begin to have little choice but try their elders.
Case in point: La Recherche, a promising 3-year-old filly who has been competitive in recent turf stakes restricted to her age group. On Sunday, trainer Tom Amoss will send the Sky Classic filly against older rivals in the ninth-race feature at Churchill Downs, a $46,800 turf allowance.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Point Given, as expected, was established as the 2-1 favorite after Friday's miniscule advance wagering on Saturday's Belmont Stakes.
Point Given, the Preakness winner, was sent off as the betting favorite in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
Dollar Bill, who was fourth in the Preakness, was the second choice at 4-1, though Friday's wagering (approximately $25,000) figures to represent only a fraction of the total win pool.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Anyone fortunate enough to be alive in the Acorn-Belmont Stakes double wager would be wise to keep their social number handy.
Thanks to Forest Secrets's 50-1 victory in the Acorn, eight of the nine possible will-pays are $600 or more.
The runt of the litter is the $417 will-pay for a 6-9 ticket combining Forest Secrets and probable Belmont favorite Point Given.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The double wager linking Friday's Acorn Stakes and Saturday's Belmont Stakes could be a bonanza for trainer John T. Ward Jr and the Oxley family.
Ward, who will saddle John Oxley's 5-2 second choice Monarchos in the Belmont, scored with a far more improbable runner in the $200,000 Acorn as 50-1 shot Forest Secrets, owned by Oxley's wife Debby, battled back in the final sixteenth to capture the Acorn by a neck over Victory Ride.