SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With news that Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker may not be 100 percent healthy, the field for Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes swelled to eight entrants, including Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide, Belmont winner Empire Maker, and Haskell winner Peace Rules.
It remains to be seen, however, which of that trio actually run.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Julie Krone has been given the mount on Candy Ride in Sunday's $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.
Krone replaces Gary Stevens on Candy Ride, who is unbeaten in five starts and is a top contender in the Pacific Classic, a Grade 1 race run at 1 1/4 miles.
Gary Stevens rode Candy Ride in the Grade 2 American Handicap at Hollywood Park on July 4, but he is out for a month after suffering a collapsed lung when he was thrown from the back of Storming Home at the finish of the Arlington Million last Saturday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Bobby Frankel has already won 18 Grade 1 stakes races this year, four shy of trainer D. Wayne Lukas's record 22 set in 1987. Frankel has a chance to equal or surpass that mark this weekend when he will have runners in five Grade 1 races from Saratoga to Del Mar.
Remington Park management is attempting to regroup this year.
The Oklahoma City track is owned by Magna Entertainment, which last year considered closing the facility because of declining business. Instead it has made a number of operational changes, which include shortening its Thoroughbred meet, which opens Friday night. The 57-day season will run through Nov. 30.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Saarland, a consistent contender in Grade 1 races this year, heads the eight runners who are likely for the Grade 3, $200,000 Philip H. Iselin Handicap Saturday afternoon at Monmouth Park.
Saarland, a 4-year-old son of Unbridled, most recently finished sixth in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga. He was beaten less than four lengths in a race where he wound up trapped on the inside.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Johar was in the best form of his career in February when a shoulder injury put him out of training.
Victories in the Oak Tree and Hollywood derbies last fall and the San Marcos Stakes against older horses in January had made Johar a top contender for the major turf stakes of 2003.
He still has a chance to achieve that goal.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Part of the intrigue surrounding the Canadian Derby each year is the matchup between horses who have been running in Alberta all year and invaders from the east, the west, and south of the border.
That will be the case again this year, with a number of local horses - including Taiaslew, Beau Brass, Raylene, and Rindanica - among the field of eight for Saturday's 74th edition of the Canadian Derby.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Pants N Kisses, a dull third last time out in the Grade 3 Manitoba Derby, will meet older opponents in Friday's Woodbine feature, a second-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles.
Pants N Kisses closed strongly from just off the pace to take the nine-furlong Victoria Park Stakes three starts ago, and he subsequently finished fifth of six in the Grade 3 Toronto Cup Handicap on turf.
