SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Blythe Miller was knocked unconscious for several minutes but escaped with only minor injuries after her mount, Capeless, fell over the final jump in Wednesday's first race at Saratoga.
Miller, who will turn 34 on Aug. 7, complained of neck pains after regaining consciousness and was immediately taken to Saratoga Hospital, where CAT scans proved negative. She was expected to be kept overnight for observation.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Davids Expectation, perhaps the hottest 3-year-old at Woodbine, will experiment on the grass on Friday in the $80,900 allowance prep for the Play the King Handicap, a Grade 3 event on Aug. 17.
Davids Expectation is coupled in the Mockingbird Farm entry with last year's Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap winner, Exciting Story, who was entered for the main track only.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Last weekend, the top 2-year-old colts in Alberta took to the track here at Northlands Park in the Edmonton Juvenile, and Taiaslew easily handled the field as the 2-5 favorite.
The situation appears to be much the same this week when the top 2-year-old fillies compete in Friday's $40,000 Princess Margaret at a distance of six furlongs and Raylene can be expected to be the prohibitive choice.
Raylene won her maiden in her last start here and defeated Judge Ruckus, who finished second to Taiaslew last week.
AUBURN, Wash. - If Not Why Not, a wire-to-wire winner of the 1 1/8-mile leg of the Harley H. Hoppe and Associates Marathon Championship Series on July 19, attempts to stretch his speed another furlong when he takes on eight challengers in Friday's second installment of the three-race series at Emerald Downs.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Six times in the last seven years, trainer John Sadler has left Del Mar with at least one stakes win.
On Sunday, he can stretch that for another season when Palmeiro starts in the $250,000 San Diego Handicap, one of the meeting's top races for older horses.
Six months ago, it would have seemed unlikely that Palmeiro would be a stakes contender at Del Mar, following an eighth-place finish in the Strub Stakes at Santa Anita.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - What do Spectacular Bid, Black Tie Affair, and a 3-year-old colt named Fighting Indians have in common? A guy named Charlie Bettis.
Bettis worked with trainer Bud Delp for 14 years and was Spectacular Bid's groom during his 3-year-old and 4-year-old seasons. He was an assistant to trainer Ernie Poulos when Black Tie Affair tore through the Midwest handicap division and won the Breeders' Cup Classic, traveling from track to track with the horse.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - One thing seems sure about Friday's $40,000-added James F. Lyttle Memorial Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair: At some point Federal Highway and Rio's Chase are likely to hook up well in front of the other four runners.
Federal Highway, who drew post 5, comes off a rapid wire-to-wire victory July 1 at Pleasanton. He will make his stakes and route debut in Friday's 1 1/16-mile race.
Rio's Chase also comes off a wire-to-wire victory, in the July 3 Pleasanton Handicap at Friday's distance. He breaks from the post 6.
Retama Park near San Antonio will be home to some of the top Texas-breds in training during its eighth season of racing, which opens Friday night with two of the state's best older horses, Lights on Broadway and Boots on Sunday, taking on open company in the $30,000 J.R. Straus Memorial Stakes.
The 51-night season runs through Oct. 26.
In many ways, the Retama meet is a celebration of everything Texas. That point will be driven home Oct. 12, when the track inducts six new members into its Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
Boots on Sunday goes for a repeat win Friday night in the $30,000 J.R. Straus Memorial, a six-furlong stakes for older horses that ushers in the eighth season of racing at Retama Park near San Antonio.
The race drew nine others, including stakes winners Lights on Broadway, Two Punch Sonny, and Front Nine.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - When Harvey Vanier takes a young horse to Florida with him in the winter, especially an Illinois-bred that could stay with Vanier's Chicago string and run for statebred purses, it's more than whimsy. It means Vanier has hopes for the horse, and indeed, there were expectations for Mucho Rapido this year.