ARCADIA, Calif. - Yankee Gentleman, a stakes winner at Del Mar earlier this month and a hopeful for the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Oct. 25, failed to finish a six-furlong workout at Santa Anita on Wednesday after jockey Julie Krone felt the colt was not traveling well.
Yankee Gentleman was four furlongs into a six-furlong workout when he was eased. The workout was considered important for his preparation for the Ancient Title Breeders' Cup Handicap on Oct. 5.
PHOENIX - The $21,000 Bienvenidos Stakes is the opening-day feature when Turf Paradise begins its live meet Friday. The 169-day meet runs through May 16, 2004, with live racing conducted five days a week, Friday through Tuesday, with first post set for 12:30 p.m. Pacific.
Full-card simulcasting, a boon to the purse structure here the past few years, is offered seven days a week.
Jerry Simms, in his fourth season as track owner, has high expectations for Thoroughbred racing in Arizona as Turf Paradise kicks off its 47th season.
ELMONT, N.Y. - With a record of 2 for 22 and no wins since 2000, Beyond the Waves is overdue for a victory. The 6-year-old Beyond the Waves has a good chance to get that win in Friday's seventh race at Belmont, a second-level allowance.
The 1 1/4-mile turf race, which has a $50,000 purse, drew an evenly-matched field of nine, plus two main-track-only horses, Little Bonnet and Mary Goodnight.
POMONA, Calif. - Purse money of $100,000 buys different things for different racetracks. Sunday at Santa Anita, it buys the participation of one horse. A purse increase allows Azeri to run for $300,000 in the Grade 2 Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap instead of for the original purse of $200,000.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It remains uncertain when and where Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide will run next. One thing is for certain: It won't be in a turf race.
Funny Cide on Wednesday worked five furlongs in 1:03.14 over a wet Belmont Park turf course listed as good, and neither jockey Jose Santos nor trainer Barclay Tagg were happy with the move. That eliminates Funny Cide from consideration for next week's Grade 2, $350,000 Kelso Handicap at Belmont.
EDMONTON, Alberta - By all accounts, it has been a highly successful season for trainer Ron Grieves.
Heading into Friday evening's card at Northlands Park, Grieves is the second-leading trainer in Alberta in 2003, with 41 wins, and needs just two more wins in the final 18 days to set a personal best.
On the other hand, with the summer meet winding down Grieves is awaiting an answer from veterinarians on whether Sly Lady, the star of his stable and possibly the best horse in Alberta this year, will ever race again.
Zee Oh Six will be back to defend his title in the $75,000 Oklahoma Classics Day Classic at Remington Park on Saturday night. The 1 1/16-mile race is the richest of seven stakes for statebreds on the nine-race card. The stakes, held at night for the first time, are worth a combined $285,000.
Most of the races drew large fields when entries were taken on Wednesday. There were 14 horses entered in both the $35,000 Lassie for 2-year-old fillies, and the $35,000 Juvenile, while fields of 12 are expected for both the $35,000 Filly and Mare Turf, and the $35,000 Turf.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - Rockem Sockem upset his highly regarded stablemate Heza Mountain Man in Tuesday night's $45,000 Patrick Wood Stakes at Great Lakes Downs. Rockem Sockem ($8.60), runner-up in his last three starts, won his maiden by a neck in the six-furlong race for 2-year-olds.
Bob Gorham trains both Rockem Sockem and Heza Mountain Man, who came into the race off a victory in the Little Ones Stakes on Aug. 23. He defeated Rockem Sockem by nearly two lengths that day.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - The featured attraction of Tuesday's Illinois Day, the Pete Condellone Handicap, lost much of its luster when the top two finishers from last year's running, Baker Road and Moe B Dick, were scratched, reducing the field to four and prompting management to cancel both trifecta and show wagering on the race.
This left a virtual match race between 8-year-old Tic N Tin, horse of the meet here in 2000-01 but whose form had not quite been up to par this season, and Bulldog George, who as a 3-year-old last year was named the meet's top horse.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Perfect Drift knocked off Mineshaft in June and Congaree in September, and both wins were perceived as upsets. Sunday, on opening day at Hawthorne Race Course, the hunter becomes the hunted. It is Perfect Drift who tops the Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup, a $750,000, 1 1/4-mile handicap that seems likely to lure just five starters.