Laurel Futurity (gr. III) winner Tapit had his first work since arriving at Palm Meadows training center, breezing an easy 7 furlongs in 1:30 3/5 Tuesday. Trainer Michael Dickinson still has not finalized plans as to when Tapit will make his 3-year-old debut.
The owner and trainer were nowhere to be found, but Acrolect showed up and trounced a field of Maryland-breds in today's $60,000 Challedon Stakes at Laurel Park.
If you have an unraced 2-year-old, you have only a couple of weeks to avoid the dreaded curse of Apollo. Meanwhile, there were several interesting winners across the country in recent weeks, and last year's Hopeful (gr. I) winner, Silver Wagon, was defeated in his return.
The loss of The Tin Man to an ankle injury one day before entries were drawn has cast Saturday's $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup (gr. IT) into a wide open competition among nine entrants in the 12-furlong event at Hollywood Park.
Trainer Michael Dickinson hopes for better luck with Bowman Mill in the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup (gr. IT) Saturday than he had with the horse's half-brother, Cetewayo, in last year's 1 1/2-mile turf test last year.
This is the fifth in a series of early looks at next year's potential Derby horses. The new-look Team Valor is thinking Derby with Tiger Hunt and two European imports. In Maryland, Michael Dickinson embarks on his first Derby adventure with a pair of talented colts.
Megahertz, a 4-year-old filly, will seek to become the second female to win the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup (gr. IT) in the 1 1/2-mile grass test on Saturday.
Mark Hopkins' A Huevo, a 7-year-old gelding making just his seventh career start, came with a rush from the outside near the sixteenth pole to register an upset of odds-on choice Shake You Down in the $300,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (gr. I) at Laurel Park Saturday.
Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC's Tapit, jumped from a debut maiden score a month ago to trounce a field of 2-year-olds in Saturday's $100,000 Laurel Futurity (gr. III).
Eliciting a "beautiful" from trainer Craig Dollase, J. Paul Reddam's Elloluv turned in a three-furlong work in :36 3/5 before sunrise Tuesday at Santa Anita, completing her serious work toward Saturday's Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I).
Master William, masterfully piloted by Patrick Husbands, scored a major upset in Saturday's featured $250,000 Cup and Saucer Stakes at Woodbine.
Darley Stable's Millennium Dragon, a two-time winner on the Belmont Park Widener Turf course, has an edge in Saturday's $350,000 Kelso Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. IIT) at a mile.
The featured $271,750 Sky Classic Stakes (Can-II) Sunday at Woodbine looked like a two-horse race on paper and on the tote board. But instead of Strut the Stage, the 1-2 favorite and multiple stakes-winning Mobil, at 2-1the contenders were 6-1 Bowman Mill and 24-1 outsider Lenny the Lender.
Six horses are entered for Saturday's $500,000 Super Derby (gr. II), but it could end up being a two-horse race. The 4-5 favorite, Ten Most Wanted, and the 8-5 second choice, Soto, are the only two graded stakes winners in the field.
Trainer Michael Dickinson reports that Soto, winner of $600,000 West Virginia Derby (gr. III) in his last start on Aug. 9, will make his next start in the $500,000 Super Derby (gr. II) at Louisiana Downs. The 24th running of the nine-furlong Super Derby will be on Sept. 20.
Displaying amazing grit and determination in only his second start back from a more than seven-month layoff, Baron George Von Ullman's Soto fought back after a stretch-long duel with Dynever to win the $600,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort on Aug. 9.
Cetewayo and Rochester, a pair of proven distance turf veterans from the East, will be flown to California Thursday morning to join a large field expected for the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup (gr. IT), at 1 1/2 mile on Saturday.
The 79th running of the $100,000 Laurel Futurity (gr. III), featuring Champagne Stakes (gr. I) winner Toccet, heads the De Francis Dash undercard Saturday at Laurel Park.
Veteran grass star Cetewayo is the 118-pound high weight in a tough field of 12 entered for the $300,000 Kentucky Cup Turf Handicap (gr. III) at Kentucky Downs, a 1 1/2-mile test that headlines a series of four turf races at the Franklin track Saturday.
A $4 million lawsuit involving track surface espionage between two Maryland trainers was settled Tuesday, according to the Baltimore Sun.
A Baltimore County (Maryland) Circuit Court jury was scheduled to begin hearing testimony Tuesday in a $4-million lawsuit filed by a trainer against another trainer over the design of an artificial track.
Cetewayo, is scheduled to be at Arlington Park Saturday to contest the Stars and Stripes Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IIIT).
Trainer Michael Dickinson's appeal of a medication violation with Fleet Renee in the 2001 Mother Goose (gr.I) and a $250 fine was turned down Wednesday by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board during its monthly meeting in Albany.
Irish-bred Mr. O'Brien got a rail-skimming ride from Pat Day to win the $100,000 Woodlawn, the first stakes race of Saturday's Preakness program at a cloudy and cool Pimlico race course in Baltimore, Md.
Like its filly counterpart last weekend, the $100,000 Woodchopper Handicap had horsemen pounding down the racing office Thursday as Saturday's feature race drew a full field of 14 with two exclusions. Fan Club's Mister drew post 14 and will run as the 120-pound highweight under Craig Perret.
Rich Meadow Stable and Alan Burkhard's 4-year-old Slew Valley is likely to invade Calder from Maryland for a return to competition in the $100,000 Tropical Park Turf Handicap (gr. III) next Saturday (Dec. 8).
Dr. John Chandler's Cetewayo and Rose B. Cerullo's Williams News are expected starting highweights Saturday for the $150,000 Red Smith Handicap (gr. IIT) for 3-year-olds and up. The 11- furlong race is the final graded turf stakes in New York this year.
Well, it's all over now but the shouting. The preps have been run. The pre-entry forms have been filled out, mailed, faxed, or stuffed into the Breeders' Cup ballot box.
Breeders' Cup Turf Report, Sept. 26, 2001
Verne Winchell's Fleet Renee, winner of the grade I Ashland and Mother Goose Stakes, will not run in Saturday's $750,000 Alabama Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga.
Michael Dickinson's worries about the Churchill Downs racing surface apparently have been eased.
Tossing her head and fighting the bit, an eager Fleet Renee charged down the Churchill Downs backstretch Tuesday morning. She was trying to take off again while galloping out following her final work before Friday's Kentucky Oaks -- something that exercise rider Lisa Tenney called "a good sign." The filly's official clocking for the three-furlong move was :36 4/5, but trainer Michael Dickinson said he timed the 3-year-old daughter of Seattle Slew in :37.14.
Michael Dickinson-trained Cetewayo earned his first victory since the 1999 Riggs Handicap, winning the $150,000 Red Smith Handicap over an Aqueduct turf course labeled good.
Michael Dickinson-trained Cetewayo returns to the races Saturday in the $150,000 Red Smith Handicap (gr. IIT), the last graded stakes this year on turf in New York.
The Bill Mott trainee Idle Rich will attempt to repeat her victory in last year's Glens Falls Handicap (gr. IIIT) when she is faced by eight rivals in the 2000 renewal of the 1 3/8-mile turf race at Saratoga on Friday.
