ARCADIA, Calif. - The prospects for Sweet Return's career changed after the Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6.
A colt once thought of as a miler, Sweet Return made an impressive rally to finish a game third over 1 1/8 miles.
The showing has given owner John Brunetti and trainer Ron McAnally high expectations for Sweet Return's reappearance in the $150,000 Oak Tree Derby at Santa Anita.
"The way he ran in the Del Mar Derby, I think he'll be very good," McAnally said. "It gave me a lot of confidence."
ARCADIA, Calif. - This has not been a typical fall for trainer Bob Baffert's 2-year-old male division. Typically by early October, the stable has a stakes winner that has developed into a widely respected candidate for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
This year, Baffert has a stable of maiden winners.
Sunday at Santa Anita, Baffert starts three well-bred colts in the $250,000 Norfolk Stakes, all of whom won maiden races at Del Mar - Coldntight, Consecrate, and Odds On.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Sightseek has been unbeatable since coming to the East in the spring, and there is no reason to believe she won't continue her winning ways in Saturday's $750,000 Beldame at Belmont Park.
The Grade 1 Beldame, New York's final prep for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff, shares the card with three other Breeders' Cup preps: the Grade 1 Champagne, Grade 1 Frizette, and Grade 2 Kelso Breeders' Cup.
Three Beldame winners - Lady's Secret (1986), Personal Ensign (1988), and Beautiful Pleasure (1999) - have gone on to win the Breeders' Cup Distaff.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Decarchy, an older half-brother to the recently retired Empire Maker, will try to snap his losing streak in Saturday's $350,000 Kelso Breeders' Cup Handicap at Belmont Park.
Despite his string of eight losses, Decarchy is the 118-pound highweight of the Kelso Breeders' Cup, a prep for the Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 25. Eleven older males were entered in the Grade 2 Kelso, which will be run at a mile on the Widener turf.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It isn't often that an apprentice rider gets a chance to ride in a Grade 1 race, but Pablo Fragoso will have that opportunity Saturday when he rides Summer Colony in the $750,000 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park.
Fragoso is no stranger to Summer Colony, as he got on her many mornings when he worked as an exercise rider for trainer Mark Hennig. Fragoso, who began riding races this spring, is still the regular work rider for Summer Colony.
Sharp recent form seems to be the common trait for nearly the entire field in Saturday's $150,000 Safely Kept Breeders' Cup Stakes at Pimlico. Of the eight 3-year-old fillies entered in the Grade 3, six-furlong sprint, four are coming off victories and two others most recently ran second.
The one filly whose credentials stand out, however, is a stranger to the East Coast who spent the summer shuttling from Kentucky to Chicago to Louisiana.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Saturday's $100,000 California Sprint Championship, a six-furlong race for Cal-breds, often serves as a prep for the Cal Cup at Santa Anita. This year's race has attracted a varied group of seven, ranging from Chataquos' Choice, a moon-shooting 3-year-old who just won his maiden in a claiming event, to 10-year-old millionaire Men's Exclusive.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Two-year-old fillies get their first chance to stretch out in Saturday's $50,000 Fantasy Stakes at Hastings. Overact figures to be a solid favorite over six others with Timber Music winner Sungold Skippy the likely second choice.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Exclusive Banker will seek his fourth win of the year in Saturday's $32,000 optional claiming feature at Northlands.
Exclusive Banker, trained by Dale Greenwood, has won twice for $28,000 and once for $22,000. He also finished a strong third in the Red Diamond Express on Alberta Fall Classics day on Sept. 20.
His chief opposition in this 6 1/2-furlong race will be Fussy's Kid, one of the circuit's most well-regarded sprinters, who was second to Sixthirtyjoe in the Red Diamond Express and lost a photo in an optional claimer in his previous start.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Mike Maker has led many a good horse into the Keeneland paddock, having worked for 10 years for D. Wayne Lukas. But since early May, when he opened his own public stable, Maker has been trying to find just the type of horse with whom he worked during his Lukas years.
He thinks he may have gotten one.