Thursday's live thoroughbred card at Woodbine was cancelled due to high winds. The Toronto area experienced wind gusts of up to 60 mph throughout Thursday. There were also snow squalls north and northwest of the city.
Racing is scheduled to resume Friday, with post time set for 12:55 p.m.
Aqueduct Racetrack canceled its live racing card on Thursday because of extremely high winds.
Winds were gusting at 30-40 miles per hour on Thursday morning, and a high wind watch was in effect for the New York area through Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service. Weather forecasters predicted that gusts would top 50 miles per hour in the afternoon.
The cancellation was the first of the Aqueduct fall meet. Aqueduct had nine races scheduled for Thursday.
Gators N Bears has won more than half of his 15 career starts, and trainer Leo Nechamkin can offer a detailed list of reasons for the colt's losses. Nechamkin said Wednesday he would have only two excuses should Gators N Bears not win Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 at Laurel Park.
"The only thing that's going to beat him is a better horse or bad luck," said Nechamkin, who also heads the partnership that owns Gators N Bears. "I think he's going to run the race of his life."
OZONE PARK, N.Y.- The streaking Lovely Fiona takes on a pair of runners from the red-hot Richard Dutrow Jr. barn in Friday's featured $51,000 third-level allowance race at Aqueduct.
Lovely Fiona, a New Jersey-bred daughter of Not for Love, has won four consecutive races, including the restricted Girl Powder Stakes at The Meadowlands on Oct. 18. Overall, she has won 5 of 7 starts and is particularly fond of wet footing, and would appreciate any leftover moisture from Wednesday's rains.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - At a mile on the main track, a matchup among stakes winners Champali, Hero's Tribute, and Twilight Road would be interesting indeed.
But at a mile on the turf, it's not only interesting, it's confusing. The allowance conditions of the Friday feature at Churchill Downs call for horses that have not won a race "other than" on grass this year, luring a handful of horses who have excelled on dirt but are veritable unknowns on grass.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Campo Lago and He Rules, who are both nominated to Saturday's Display Stakes, will run instead in Friday's Woodbine headliner, a 1 1/16-mile allowance for 2-year-olds.
Campo Lago, a son of Grade 1-winning turf specialist Military, has run well in all three of his main-track starts. After flopping on the grass in his debut, he finished third behind Display contender Smoocher in a seven-furlong maiden special Aug. 31.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Icicle Angel, fresh from a score in the Diane Kem Stakes here on Oct. 25, will take on six challengers in Friday's six-furlong allowance feature.
Icicle Angel, a 6-year-old daughter of La Saboteur from the barn of trainer Richard Occhiuto, came from just off the pace to score a neck decision over Run Free in the Diane Kem, getting six furlongs in 1:13.11. It was the second stakes win and the ninth career victory for Icicle Angel, who boasts $122,122 in earnings. Karen Knapp will again have the mount at 123 pounds.
MIAMI - Among the highlights of Saturday's Florida Million program at Calder Race Course are Best of the Rest's title defense in the Carl G. Rose Classic, the much-anticipated meeting of undefeated 2-year-olds Sir Oscar and Wynn Dot Comma in the Jack Price Juvenile, and jockey Jerry Bailey's quest to break two riding records.
The Maryland Racing Commission voted Tuesday not to intervene in the Maryland Jockey Club's decision to close Pimlico stables this winter. The 6-2 vote set off angry responses from horsemen aimed primarily at Tom McDonough, the commission chairman.
McDonough led the commission's vote not to involve itself in the decision about Pimlico and not to hear testimony from dozens of horsemen who attended the meeting at Laurel Park.
