Ponzi Scheme has plenty of back class, with three stakes victories during his campaigns in 2011 and 2012. Whether he is ready to regain that good form following two mediocre sprint performances and a dull effort at a flat mile, however, is open to debate.
The 6-year-old Ponzi Scheme will seek to snap a nine-race losing streak when he stretches out from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles as the 2-1 morning-line favorite in Thursday’s $50,000 Stymie Stakes at Delaware Park.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine’s backstretch was engulfed by 5 inches of rain in a storm that started late Monday afternoon and continued well into the evening.
Several barns were flooded, to varying degrees. The flooding was worse in barns where end doors and windows were left open and employees were unable to get to them due to flooding at the backstretch entrances.
The actual stalls were flooded in a number of barns, and matting and bedding was pulled out and tossed on the shed rows in an attempt to dry them.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The once-beaten Huronia returns from a long layoff on Wednesday night at Woodbine in the fourth race, a nonwinners-of-three allowance race for Ontario-sired females at 6 1/2 furlongs on grass.
Huronia, a 4-year-old trained by Stuart Simon, made all three of her career starts last fall on Polytrack. She dueled through fast fractions before weakening to second when she debuted in a six-furlong maiden special weight race on Oct. 6. About a month later, she overcame a slow break to beat Ontario-sired maidens from off the pace going 6 1/2 furlongs.
The numbers are certainly stacked in trainer Graham Motion’s favor in Wednesday’s $50,000 Christiana Stakes at Delaware Park. Motion has four of the 10 3-year-old fillies entered in the one-mile turf stakes, including last-out winners Makayla’s Angel and Joy. All will run as separate entrants.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Up With the Birds, who flew home to be beaten a half-length as the 8-5 favorite in the Queen’s Plate, completed a frustrating weekend for Sam-Son Farms, trainer Malcolm Pierce, and jockey Eurico Rosa Da Silva.
On Saturday, those connections had watched Golden Sabre finish first in the $129,800 Charlie Barley only to be disqualified and placed fourth.
His Race to Win, also racing for Pierce and Sam-Son in the Queen’s Plate, finished sixth under import rider John Velazquez.
MIAMI – Trainer Marty Wolfson said the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint would not be an option for Starship Truffles immediately after her victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Princess Rooney Handicap at Calder. By Monday, however, Wolfson said the door still remained open, if only slightly, for a possible trip to Santa Anita in the fall.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Winning the Queen’s Plate is not a new experience for the ontrack and offtrack partnership of Nick Gonzalez and his wife and assistant, Martha.
The Gonzalezes were competing in just their second Queen’s Plate here Sunday, having won the 2011 renewal with Big Red Mike, and they sent out Midnight Aria for a front-running 16-1 victory under regular rider Jesse Campbell.
As they made abundantly clear Monday, winning the $1 million Queen’s Plate is never going to get old.
Despite racing during an unprecedented heat wave, the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif., showed an increase in daily average handle for its 12-day meeting, which concluded Sunday.
Ontrack wagering jumped 11.6 percent a day from $365,612 in 2012 to $407,914 this year. The all-sources daily handle, including out-of-state, satellite and account betting, improved 8.1 percent from $1,224,698 to $1,323,603.
PLEASANTON, Calif. – Russell Baze picked up a mount on the favored Handful of Pearls in the final race of the Alameda County Fair meet Sunday and rode the 4-year-old filly to the 12,000th victory of his career, winning a photo over Here It Tiz.
"I'm glad to get it out of the way," said Baze, who needed more than 30 minutes to get back to the jockeys’ room after being mobbed by family, friends, and fans following the milestone victory.
AUBURN, Wash. – Gosailgo, the longest shot on the board, raced to an emphatic victory Sunday in the $50,000 Boeing Handicap for fillies and mares at Emerald Downs.
Sent off at 9-1 in a four-horse field, Gosailgo nursed a short lead through the first six furlongs before kicking away strongly through the stretch to win by five lengths. She ran one mile in 1:35.08 and paid $20.20.
Exclusive Diva and E Z Kitty were presumed to be the overwhelming leaders in the distaff division at Emerald Downs, so much so that only two other horses were entered to face them in the Boeing.
