MUSKEGON, Mich. - Ann Arbor Stakes winner Cassopolis heads a field of seven Michigan-bred 3-year-old fillies in Friday's $45,000 Michigan Oaks at Great Lakes Downs.
Cassopolis, claimed in May for $8,000, had been competitive all meet before her breakthrough stakes win in the Aug. 8 Ann Arbor, which she won by nearly 10 lengths. Randy Russell, second in the standings here, trains Cassopolis for Margaret Sullivan. Luis Martinez has the mount for the 1 1/16-mile Michigan Oaks.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Trainer Wally Dollase has been down this road before. In 1997, he brought Travers winner Deputy Commander to Louisiana Downs and won the Super Derby. Saturday, he will try and pull off the same double with Deputy Commander's best son, Ten Most Wanted.
Based at Hollywood Park, Ten Most Wanted is expected to go favored in the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby over Soto, the undefeated winner of the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby.
POMONA, Calif. - Only one of the six winning tickets in the Fairplex Park pick six Monday was purchased in California, as bettors across the country poured $672,756 chasing a three-day carryover that had swollen to $297,793. The gross pool, including carryover, reached $970,549, and the winning tickets each returned $111,230.
MIAMI - Second of June has spent so much time at the starting gate since his last start that trainer Bill Cesare might have considered hanging a feed tub by the gate for the 2-year-old colt.
Cesare is hoping all that extra schooling will pay off for Second of June when he starts in Saturday's $100,000 Foolish Pleasure Stakes.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Danceinthestreets is the best thing bred in New Mexico to come to New York since jockey Mike Smith rode here.
Danceinthestreets, who has been in five barns in her 12-race career, puts a six-race win streak on the line Thursday against five rivals in a $51,000 third-level allowance race at Belmont Park.
CHICAGO - If nothing else, there sure are a lot of horses in Arlington's featured eighth race on Thursday.
Twelve, in fact, were entered in this first-level allowance at one mile.
Casual fans who crave high-class action may look elsewhere, but this race is a bonanza for players seeking a full, bettable field. The past performance lines seem to go on for pages. And they are rife with contenders.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Keep an eye on trainer Dennis Patterson at Bay Meadows on Thursday.
He starts Lethal Grande in the seventh race, a $32,000 claimer at six furlongs, and El Tirador, a winner in his debut, in the second race, a $16,000 claimer for 2-year-olds at 5 1/2 furlongs.
Lethal Grande will be a longshot against five rivals, but he is a stakes winner at the distance and has hit the board in 15 of 27 starts.
It's just that he finds himself in one of the deepest, most well-matched group of runners on the grounds.
The Illinois Racing Board awarded 2004 Thoroughbred dates on Tuesday without the usual turmoil and dissent at its annual dates hearing. Rather than fighting things out at the hearing, Chicago's Thoroughbred tracks worked out a schedule in the days leading up to the board meeting.
