Racing News

The Breeders' Cup will reinstate entry fee benefits to the connections of Silver Max and Poker Player, winners of Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" events atKeeneland Oct. 5 and 6 that lost their designation when the races came off the turf, it was announced Oct. 11.

However, the automatic Challenge starting positions will not be reinstated, and each horse will be required to qualify for the Nov. 1-2 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Santa Anita Park on the basis of Breeders' Cup points or through the racing directors and secretaries panel selection.

Cane Pace runner-up Word Power makes his next start in the $41,125 New Jersey Futurity for 3-year-old pacers, the featured seventh race on Saturday (Oct. 12) at Freehold Raceway.

Driven by George Brennan and trained by Larry Remmen, the son of Western Idealhas been installed as the 6-5 morning line favorite and will leave from post five.

Word Power finished a neck behind 2012 Pacer of the Year Captaintreacherous in the $360,211 Cane on Sept. 2 at Tioga Downs. On Sept. 19, an interference break in a preliminary heat of the Little Brown Jug cost him any hope of qualifying for the final. Word Power picked up his fifth win of the year in a conditioned pace at Yonkers on Oct. 1.

The opening leg of four California Harness Legends late-closing series events share the spotlight Saturday night at the Watch and Wager LLC meet at Cal Expo.

A 14-race card is on tap with first post set for 5:55 p.m. There will be Saturday racing throughout October, with the schedule shifting to Friday and Saturday night action starting in November.

All four of the series openers on Saturday are for the pacing set. The Bill Conlin kicks off in the seventh race; the Annette Funicello will go as the ninth; the Jim Dennis occupies the 12th race on the evening and the Mike Corley will be decided as the nightcap. The second legs will be next week and the finales are set for Oct. 26.

Foxwoods Champagne Stakes (gr. I) runner-upHonor Code will bypass the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) atSanta Anita Park on Nov. 2 in favor of the $250,000 Remsen Stakes (gr. II) atAqueduct Racetrack on Nov. 30, Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey said Oct. 10.

The 2-year-old from the last crop of A.P. Indy ran lights out in the one mile Champagne on Oct. 5 atBelmont Park, closing eight wide with a tremendous bold rally under Javier Castellano to just miss catching Havana by a neck. It was his second career start and came off an Aug. 31 victory by 4 1/2 lengths at first asking going seven furlongs at Saratoga Race Course.    

Owner Frank Bellino believes Pet Rock is fast enough to do what has never been done before. Whether he is lucky enough will be determined Sunday.

Pet Rock will try to become the first harness racing horse in history to establish world records on three different sized tracks in as many starts when he faces nine rivals in the $175,000 Allerage Farms Open Pace at Lexington’s Red Mile on Sunday.

Somewhere in the 12-horse field of the $200,000 Miss Grillo Stakes (gr. IIIT) one would think there is a budding turf star who will have a major impact on the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. IT).

All but one of the 2-year-old fillies entered in the 1 1/16-mile race atBelmont Park Oct. 6 has shown great promise on the grass, with the exception being Godolphin’s Dancing House. She is the only starter with grade I experience, having finished third in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in the slop.

Multiple stakes winner Go Greeley, a nose away from being undefeated in five starts, looks for his first graded win in the $150,000 Grey Stakes(Can-III) Oct. 6 on the Polytrack at Woodbine.

Just four opposing 2-year-olds were entered to face Go Greeley, who tries 1 1/16 miles for the first time for trainer John Ross and J. R. Racing Stable. The son of Horse Greeley   is coming off a nose victory in the 6 1/2-furlong Simcoe Stakes over Spin the King, the horse that defeated him in the Clarendon Stakes July 7. Go Greeley has won three straight since that loss, all in stakes, and will not have to face Spin the King in the Grey.

Well-traveled Charming Kitten drew the far outside post in a field of 10 sophomores as the 7-2 morning-line favorite in the $200,000 Hawthorne Derby (gr. IIIT) on the turf Oct. 5 in Illinois.

Ken and Sarah Ramsey's homebred by Kitten's Joy   will be making his seventh consecutive start at different tracks for trainer Todd Pletcher. He was most recently fourth of five as the favorite in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (gr. III), a race taken on the turf at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 9 and contested on a sloppy main track.

Midnight Taboo, one of two 3-year-olds owned by Mike Repole that had been entered in the $500,000 Indiana Derby(gr. II) at Indiana DownsOct. 5, will be withdrawn, trainer Todd Pletcher said. 

"We've decided we are going to runMicromanage but we are going to scratch Midnight Taboo," said Pletcher by phone Oct. 3.

Saturday (Oct. 12) marks the richest day of the Maine harness racing season as more than $330,000 in purse money will be up for grabs at Scarborough Downs, with championship glory gleaming in the eyes of 32 Maine-bred hopefuls as they gather to do battle on the biggest day of their racing careers.

Julie Walker has made a name for herself this season while racing on the Woodbine Entertainment circuit.

The talented young conditioner has put up career numbers with 16 wins from 76 starts with just shy of $250,000 in seasonal earnings. On top of that, the 31-year-old has an impressive .341 UTR.

“Its been one of those years where everything has fallen into place,” Walker said. “We have a nice group of young horses that have raced very well this summer. We don’t have a big stable and I prefer it that way. I’d take quality over quantity any day.”

Champion 3-year-old pacing filly I Luv The Nitelife showed she loves the daylife as well on Thursday (Oct. 10) at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, staying sharp for next week’s $500,000 Breeders Crown divisional championship with a 1:52.4 in-command qualifying victory.

Tim Tetrick sent the sophomore dynamo straight to the lead from post six and she posted splits of :29, :57.4, and 1:25.4, then bulleted home in :27 to show that trainer Chris Ryder has kept a sharp edge on her all the way to the cooler months of the year (it was 52 degrees at Pocono this morning, and on average doesn’t figure to be any warmer next Saturday).

Thursday's (Oct. 3) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Hoosier Park, Colonial Downs and Vernon Downs.

After finding Game On Dude too tough to handle on the West Coast,Delegation should feel much more comfortable as he returns to Woodbineto defend his title in the $150,000 Durham Cup(Can-III) Oct. 6.

Gary Barber's 4-year-oldSpeightstown   gelding stayed close to top-ranked Game On Dude for a mile in the $1 million Pacific Classic (gr. I) Aug. 25 at Del Mar, but weakened in the stretch to finish sixth in the 10-furlong event. He will try to regroup at Woodbine, where he has won five of six starts on the Polytrack. 

Rosedown Racing'sBashart, winner of the Aug. 29 With Anticipation Stakes (gr. IIT) atSaratoga Race Coursein his most recent start, tops a field of 12 2-year-olds entered for the $150,000 Bourbon Stakes (gr. IIIT) atKeeneland Oct. 6.

A 1 1/16-mile grass test, the Bourbon is a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" event for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. IT) to be run Nov. 1 atSanta Anita Park. It will go as the seventh on Sunday's nine-race program with an approximate post time of 4:17 p.m. EDT.

Chocolate Delight is a ribbon-winning show horse and now a stakes winner, too.

He rallied with a three-wide move on the last turn to win the $20,000 New Jersey Futurity for New Jersey-sired 3-year-old trotters on Thursday, October 3, 2013 at Freehold Raceway.

The gelded son of Chocolatier trotted the mile in a career best of 1:59.3 with Jim Meittinis driving for trainer Oyvind Hegdal. 

Royalty For Life cannot wear the crown, but that doesn’t diminish trainer George Ducharme’s enthusiasm for Sunday’s $527,000 Kentucky Futurity for 3-year-old male trotters at The Red Mile in Lexington.

The Kentucky Futurity is the third jewel in the Trotting Triple Crown. Royalty For Life captured the second piece, the Hambletonian, after Dewycolorintheline won the first, the Yonkers Trot.

Royalty For Life was among 14 trotters entered in the 121st Futurity, so the field was divided into two seven-horse eliminations. The top five finishers from each elim advance to the same-day final. Unlike previous years when a horse had to win twice to be declared the champion, the winner of the final will receive the trophy regardless of his finish position in his elimination.

The second week of Grand Circuit racing at The Red Mile kicked-off on Thursday afternoon (Oct. 3) with three divisions in the International Stallion Stake for 2-year-old filly trotters.

In the $88,500 opening division, Brittany Farms' Lifetime Pursuit brushed to the lead at the half-mile marker and went on to score in a lifetime best 1:52.3, just one-fifth of a second off the world record set here last week by Designed To Be.Yannick Gingras was in the bike for trainer Jimmy Takter as the daughter ofCantab Hall-Queen Of Grace posted her sixth win in nine lifetime starts. Her share of the purse lifted her 2013 earnings to $264,120.