ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It's not that any of the six Canadian-bred 3-year-olds in Saturday's Plate Trial would pass up a chance at the $97,650 winner's share for the 1 1/8-mile Woodbine feature.
But there's also the not-so-small matter of the $1 million Queen's Plate, with its $600,000 first prize and enormous prestige, which will be over 1 1/4 miles here June 24.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Burlington House is shipping in for Saturday's $6,000 Marquis Inaugural Handicap and should be the prohibitive favorite to score his second straight victory in the race.
Owned by Kane Kachur, Burlington House already has won three times in 2001 and was third in his other start competing in Alberta and Manitoba. His primary weapon is exceptional speed away from the gate.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trap Me Not will travel from Hastings Park to take on five local runners in Friday's featured eighth race at Emerald Downs. The feature is an open $12,500 claiming event at 5 1/2 furlongs.
Trap Me Not, a stakes winner in Canada as a 3-year-old in 1998, is arriving in sharp form. From three starts at the current Hastings Park meeting, the speedy Trap Me Not has a win and two thirds while racing at the $15,000 claiming level. The drop to the $12,500 level should raise no eyebrows, since $12,500 in United States currency is worth more than $15,000 Canadian.
CALGARY, Alberta - Regal Illusion is out to prove to owners Ken Forbes and John Walker and trainer Brian Walper that she was worth the $5,500 they spent at Northlands Park last October under most unusual circumstances.
The group acquired Regal Illusion after dropping a claim for her on closing weekend of the 2000 Alberta season, but Walper had to win a shake over 21 rivals.
MIAMI - The $1 million Florida Derby, the richest prep race leading to the Kentucky Derby, has been moved a week later and will be run next year on March 16, a Gulfstream Park official said Wednesday. The new date puts the Florida Derby seven weeks before the Kentucky Derby.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The outstanding racing offered at Hollywood Park over the three-day Memorial Day weekend has taken its toll on an overnight program already burdened by a saturated racing calendar.
While some top tracks (Belmont Park and Churchill Downs, for example) scheduled two dark days after racing Monday, Hollywood took a single day off and barreled ahead. The racing week that ended Monday was the second six-day week in the last three weeks at Hollywood. It shows.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Horses who bypassed last Saturday's Connaught Cup Stakes - Allende, Red Scare, and Parose - are among the contenders in Friday's wide-open eighth race at Woodbine, an $80,000 optional claimer.
A field of 14 will line up in the one-mile turf race, which carries a purse of $66,000.
Allende ran fourth in two thirds of the 2000 Canadian Triple Crown, the Queen's Plate and Breeders' Stakes. His lone victory last year came in an allowance on the grass.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When Dale Romans said he was loaded for bear for the Churchill spring meet, he wasn't kidding.
As the 47-day meet hit its midway point Thursday, Romans was the undisputed leading trainer, with only Elliott Walden and Bernie Flint within shouting distance. True to form, Romans should find himself in an enviable position when the Friday feature, the ninth of 10 races, rolls around: One of his up-and-coming horses, Irish Fantasy, should prove the one to beat in a field of eight 3-year-old fillies.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Bon Fearless took full advantage of the last good opportunity for a New York-bred sprinting filly until fall when she romped to a 4 3/4-length victory in the Bouwerie Stakes on May 13.
Now, trainer Michael Nevin must figure out how well Bon Fearless stacks up against open company, a process that begins Friday in a seven-furlong, third-level allowance race at Belmont Park. First post for Friday's nine-race twilight program is 3:05 p.m.
CHICAGO - Chief Illinois state steward Rene Riera Jr. has resigned his post after the Illinois Racing Board found him guilty of exercising "poor judgment in a number of areas," according to an IRB statement. Riera's resignation is effective immediately.
