ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Venerable 8-year-old Parose is fresh and ready to make his mark in Saturday's Grade 3, $164,850 Durham Cup Handicap at Woodbine.
Parose was claimed by trainer Sandy McPherson on behalf of owner John Atto for $62,500 last December, and has proven to be well worth the money.
Trainer John Gelner feels another furlong might have been all Prized Amberpro needed to win her last race, so an extra furlong is what she will get Saturday when she starts as the 120-pound highweight in the $30,000 Majorette Handicap at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La.
The seven-furlong race for fillies and mares drew a competitive group of nine, including Cielo Girl.
Prized Amberpro was closing well late in the $50,000 Monique Rene Handicap on Aug. 24 and finished fourth, beaten 3 3/4 lengths by Cielo Girl.
MIAMI, Fla. - Vague Memory moved to the top of the local filly and mare sprint division following her victory in the Miss Gibson County Stakes on June 16. Then she ran into Xtra Heat.
Vague Memory tried to stay with Xtra Heat in the early stages of the Princess Rooney Handicap before stopping and finishing last in the Grade 2 event. She hasn't been the same since, although trainer Rudy Wolfendale is hoping an equipment change will get Vague Memory back on the right track when she faces five other older fillies and mares in Saturday's $75,000 U Can Do It Handicap.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - Michigan's richest night of Thoroughbred racing will be held Saturday when Great Lakes Downs holds the Michigan Sire Stakes, a series of six races for the progeny of Michigan stallions.
The purse for each race is $120,000-added, with last year's total purses nearing $160,000 per race. The 2-year-old races are at six furlongs, the 3-year-old runners will go 1 1/16 miles, and older runners will be asked to go 1 1/8 miles. There are races for both males and females in each division.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. - Trainer Earl Begley will ship Controls Free here from Baltimore for Saturday's $30,000 Bruce G. Smith Memorial Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Controls Free is racing here rather than in Maryland because he is in good form and turf opportunities are dwindling in the East.
Controls Free comes off a second and a fourth in stakes. Those performances prompted Begley to look far and wide for a race for him.
Based on Valenzo's lack of success in the first two starts of his career, it would have sounded ridiculous if trainer Allen Iwinski suggested the 2-year-old colt had stakes potential.
In a pair of sprints for maidens, Valenzo displayed not a drop of speed or any ability to gain ground late. He was beaten a combined 30 lengths and finished ahead of only three horses.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The opposition tried to challenge Azeri at various points in Wednesday's $217,500 Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap at Santa Anita, but in the end it made no difference.
Winning her sixth consecutive graded stakes, Azeri pulled away in early stretch to win by 3 1-2 lengths and confirm her status as the favorite for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at Arlington Park on Oct. 26.
Azeri ($2.60) finished 1 1-16 miles in 1:41.10 under jockey Mike Smith. The 4-year-old Azeri carried topweight of 127 pounds and spotted her rivals from 11 to 15 pounds.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Zavata, who would have been one of the favorites for Saturday's $500,000 Champagne at Belmont Park, will miss the Grade 1 race due to an ankle injury, trainer Patrick Biancone said.
"We found a bit of swelling in his left hind ankle," Biancone said from Saratoga. "It's nothing serious. If it happened five or six days before the race, it would have been okay. But it happened 48 hours before the race. He may have kicked a wall or something like that."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - For thousands of sports fans in Kentucky, few things in life are more enjoyable than kicking back and watching Thoroughbred racing on an autumn afternoon at Keeneland Race Course. The first of 17 opportunities to savor that experience comes Friday, when two Grade 2 stakes help open the Keeneland fall meet.
The $500,000 WinStar Galaxy and the $400,000 Walmac International Alcibiades are the Friday co-features, and like four other graded races that will be run here opening weekend, both have major implications for the Oct. 26 World Thoroughbred Championships.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Atlantic Ocean seems to be doing everything exponentially.
She was bought for a mere $31,000 as a yearling, then sold five months later for an incredible $1.9 million, and Atlantic Ocean has shown a similar tendency for fast advancement as a racing prospect. Badly beaten in two races to begin her career, she won a maiden race at Del Mar, then made a quantum leap with a dominant victory in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies at Turfway Park.