ELMONT, N.Y. - Empire Maker, the Belmont Stakes winner, who scratched out of the Travers Stakes with a cough, has been coughing again and may be forced to miss the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Sept. 27, trainer Bobby Frankel said Wednesday.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Growth spurts, tender shins, petulant behavior - training a talented 2-year-old often can feel like a roller coaster ride. And that's what has the trainer Bret Calhoun concerned.
Cactus Ridge, 3 for 3 and one of the fastest juveniles in the country, has had nothing but smooth sailing this season. His next race will come here Sept. 27 in the Arlington-Washington Futurity, and Calhoun feels that Cactus Ridge is coming up to it better than he has been yet.
"It's been a little scary how good things have gone," Calhoun said Wednesday.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Jockey Jason Lumpkins begins a 10-day suspension Friday for a ride in last Sunday's second race at Bay Meadows.
Lumpkins asked for a stay on the suspension from the California Horse Racing Board pending an appeal, but his agent, Dennis Patterson, was informed Wednesday that the stay had been denied.
Sam Houston Race Park in Houston has moved the date of one of its top races, the $200,000 Connally Breeders' Cup Turf, from February to April next year in one of several changes to a $2.1 million stakes schedule, which was released Wednesday.
In all, 37 stakes are planned for the track's upcoming Thoroughbred meet, which will run 93 days from Oct. 23 to April 10. Daily purses during the meet will average $110,000.
Sam Houston's attendance during its 43-night Quarter Horse meet that ended Saturday averaged 4,267 in attendance a night, compared to 4,197 a year ago. Handle on the track's live races averaged $595,643 a card compared to $705,791 in 2002.
Next year, Sam Houston will host the MBNA America Challenge Championship, which is a Breeders' Cup for Quarter Horses, on Nov. 6.
Trainer Ralph Martinez appears to have successfully made the transition from Fairmount Park to Hoosier Park.
On Friday the 25-year-old Martinez saddled three winners on the card. He became the ninth trainer to register the feat and joins a list that includes Bernie Flint, Gary Patrick, and Stanley Roberts, who has pulled off the hat trick three times.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Trainer Pete Condellone suffered a stroke Sept. 3 and remains in Oliver Anderson Hospital in nearby Maryville Ill. Condellone, 93, has reportedly lost the use of his left arm and leg.
Condellone has been a fixture at Fairmount for decades. He co-founded the local chapter of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, along with Joe Podesta. Newly elected HBPA president Lanny Brooks has visited Condellone, whom he reports has made recent progress.
COLUMBUS, Neb. - Riders Alex Granda and Newil Wall avoided serious injury in a spill on the first of three turns in Sunday's ninth and final race.
Oberlin Yankee, with Granda riding, appeared to clip the heels of a rival in front of him and fell, throwing Granda to the ground. Done Dreaming, with Wall aboard, could not avoid the fallen horse and rider and also went down. Both horses got up and ran off but the riders remained down.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Keeping the Gold and Halory Leigh lead a solid field of 10 3-year-old fillies in Friday's $75,000 Prairie Meadows Oaks.
Keeping the Gold, a daughter of Langfuhr who is trained by Chris Block, had a four-race winning streak snapped in her most recent start when she finished second, beaten 1 1/2 lengths, after a wide trip in the Grade 3 Singapore Plate at Arlington Park on Aug. 9.
MIAMI - Silver Wagon, upset winner of the Hopeful Stakes and the No. 1-rated male 2-year-old in the country in Daily Racing Form's Watchmaker Watch, has returned to training at his home base at Calder. And while his connections have yet to confirm Silver Wagon's next start, trainer Ralph Ziadie said Wednesday that Belmont's Grade 1 Champagne Stakes on Oct. 4 remains under serious consideration.