Check Him Out will go for his second Derby win in the Grade 2, $117,000 PCQHRA Breeders Derby on Friday night at Los Alamitos.
The second-fastest qualifier, Check Him Out defeated seven other eventual Derby finalists in his trial victory, in which he covered 400 yards in 19.85 seconds and defeated third-fastest qualifier Miami Cartel. In a rare event, eight horses qualified for the finals from this trial on Sept. 14, with only two runners qualifying from the other trial.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Ardell Sayler is poised to win his third consecutive training title as the 2002 Assiniboia meet heads into its final weekend.
Sayler's 38 wins place him seven ahead of Wendy Anderson and Emile Corbel with three days of racing remaining.
Anderson, whose record currently stands at 31 wins from 146 starts, is one of several trainers who have had solid seasons in 2002.
Who says lightning doesn't strike twice?
Apprentice jockey Bacarra Rice lit up the Philadelphia Park tote board twice on Monday's program by winning with a pair of highly improbable longshots.
Rice coaxed Gold Exchange, a 4-year-old filly who had not finished closer to the winner than 16 lengths in her last eight starts, to a wire-to-wire win in a $4,000 claiming sprint. She paid $126.80 for a $2 win ticket.
As close as X Country and E Z Glory were in the betting, that's how close they were heading down the stretch of Tuesday night's $77,800 Fall Handicap at Mountaineer Park.
Only a head separated the even-money X Country from 8-5 second choice E Z Glory with a furlong remaining in the 1 1/8-mile race. Under urging from jockey Dana Whitney, X Country ($4.20) finally pulled away by 2 1/4 lengths at the wire.
X Country, a 4-year-old gelding trained by Jack Fuchs, is now 3 for 7 this year, including two stakes wins at Mountaineer.
ANDERSON, Ind. - The two biggest races of the Hoosier Park meet, the $300,000-added Indiana Breeders' Cup Oaks and the $400,000-added Indiana Derby, will be run on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5.
The Grade 3 Oaks received a purse boost of $100,000 this year and offers $250,000 added plus another $50,000 for Breeders' Cup eligibles. Among the 26 nominees to the race are Habibti, Lady Shari, Lost at Sea, and Magic Storm.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - With Fairmount's Illinois Stakes Day coming up on Tuesday, several horses have been getting in their final tune-ups for the competition.
Among the most intriguing of these is Wright on Houston.
As a 2-year-old last year on the inaugural Illinois Stakes Day card, Wright on Houston went wire to wire in the Marluel's Troy Stakes. He had been disappointing this season until a few weeks ago, when he won a nonwinners-of-three-lifetime allowance easily.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - The EQTAH company headed by Andy Stronach has requested 45 days of mixed-breed racing next year from the Michigan racing commission for a planned facility in Webberville, Mich., just east of Lansing. The meet would run from September through November and compete with Great Lakes Downs, which asked the commission for its regular dates from late April through late October.
Great Lakes Downs, owned by the Magna Entertainment Company of Frank Stronach, who is not involved with EQTAH, is the lone Thoroughbred-only track in the state.
Glitter Ghost and Confiding Winner head a field of nine 2-year-old fillies entered in Friday's $50,000 Prairie Meadows Debutante Stakes.
Glitter Ghost steps up into stakes company after scoring an impressive 8 1/2-length debut victory against maiden special weight company at Ellis Park on Aug. 3. A daughter of Glitterman, she led throughout en route to a brisk 1:10.78 clocking for the six furlongs under jockey Sidney LeJeune Jr.
High-percentage trainer Larry Jones trains Glitter Ghost for owners Fred and Nancy Mitchell, and LeJeune will be in for the mount.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Aidan O' Brien, who is blessed with a surfeit of top-class runners, has never started a horse at Woodbine. But that will change Sunday when Ballingarry, one of six O'Brien trainees nominated to the Canadian International, gets a chance to emerge from the shadow of his more illustrious stablemates - such as Rock of Gibraltar, High Chaparral, and Hawk Wing - in the Grade 1, $1.5 million feature.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Yes, handicappers, there will be pace in Saturday's $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Tuesday that provided no other speed horse enters the fray, he will start the front-running Abreeze in Saturday's Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.
"If there's no speed and only five or six horses, we'll probably run," McLaughlin said. "There's rain in the forecast and he likes it sloppy."
Abreeze would be running back just two weeks after finishing fourth in the Kentucky Cup Classic Handicap at Turfway Park on Sept. 14.