NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Floater, undefeated in two career starts, will attempt to stretch his speed around two turns while dropping into Ohio-bred company for the first time in Sunday's $75,000 Juvenile Stakes at Thistledown at 1 1/16 miles.
Floater won at first asking going 4 1/2 furlongs at Mountaineer on Aug. 10, then two weeks later shipped to River Downs and romped to a 4 3/4-length win going six furlongs.
MIAMI - Trainer Marty Wolfson will go shopping around for Aeneas's next start, and he plans to let the market dictate what direction the multiple graded stakes-placed Aeneas will head later this month.
Wolfson will limit his choices for Aeneas to three: The Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on Sept. 27; the Grade 2, $750,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup on Sept. 28; and the Grade 3, $400,000 Meadowlands Cup on Oct. 3.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The kitchen utensil salesmen are gone, the cotton candy has been eaten, and it should be a lot easier to get into Hastings with the Pacific National Exhibition finally over. The good news is that the best part of the meet is about to begin. Beginning next Sunday with the Jack and Sadie Diamond futurities, more than $900,000 worth of stakes money will be up for grabs in the next month and a half.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Owner-trainer Gina Powell was surprised last Monday when her Get Down Wolfie, dueling for the lead, fell out of contention in the Puss N Boots Stakes entering the stretch. At the end, he finished in front of only two runners, 11 lengths behind the winner, Le Cinquieme Essai.
Powell's first inclination was that her horse might have suffered an injury. But that wasn't so, she found out back at the barn later.
"Wolfie is as sound as any horse in America," Powell said. "And he's so good, right now I felt he couldn't lose."
Winnipeg, Manitoba - Pete's Surprise and Ocean Effect will likely vie for favorite status among eight runners in Sunday's $35,000 Assiniboia Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.
Pete's Surprise, owned by Fred Bennett and trained by Jack Robertson, comes into the 1 1/16-mile Oaks off a two-length victory in the one-mile Manitoba Distaff in restricted company on Sept. 1.
A daughter of Peteski,, Pete's Surprise finished second to Ocean Effect, beaten half a length two starts ago in open company going a mile. Nevertheless, she does appear to be improving.
Sam Houston Race Park in Houston will be the site of the 2004 running of the MBNA America Challenge Championship, the American Quarter Horse Association announced Thursday. The series, a Breeders' Cup-style championship card for Quarter Horses made up of six divisional stakes worth a total of more than $1 million, will be held at date yet to be specified in the fall of 2004.
ELMONT, N.Y. - When owner Will Farish and trainer Neil Howard decided to give Mineshaft a brief freshening this summer, it may have been more for them than their horse.
"It was bothering Mr. Farish and I more than it was bothering him if he needed a break or not, which is why we skipped the Whitney and decided to be more judicious by him,'' Howard said.
His mini-vacation over, Mineshaft starts back down the road to the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday when he takes on four rivals in the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. - A popular handicapping guide noted that trainer Allen Jerkens hadn't won with a first-time starter at Saratoga in the last nine meets, a staggering 0 for 44. So all Jerkens did this summer at the Spa was pop with a pair of first-time starters at boxcar mutuels.
ELMONT, N.Y. - There are basically four 3-year-old fillies in the running for divisional honors. Three of them will be running in Saturday's $250,000 Gazelle Handicap at Belmont Park.
While Kentucky Oaks and Acorn winner Bird Town skips the Gazelle for a race next month, Alabama winner Island Fashion, Test winner Lady Tak, and multiple Grade 1 winner Spoken Fur meet in the Gazelle, the final Grade 1 dirt route of the season restricted to 3-year-old fillies.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The odds have been in the double digits when Whitmore's Conn won his last two starts, the Grade 2 Bowling Green and Grade 1 Sword Dancer.
The odds don't figure to be as good on Saturday when Whitmore's Conn, a New York-bred, shoots for his third consecutive graded win in the $500,000 Man o' War at Belmont Park.
