UPI Horse Racing Weekend Preview

Just as things seem to be winding down in Thoroughbred racing, it's Gulfstream Park to the rescue this weekend with the enticing Claiming Crown program.

To be fair, there also are three big-deal graded stakes at Del Mar. Woodbine offers its seasonal Valedictory. Aqueduct rolls on with some important stakes action. Kentucky racing moves from Churchill Downs to Turfway Park, which has added dates for the Holiday Meet.

Internationally, it's just a week to the Hong Kong International Races, which will feature the likes of Highland Reel and Maurice and a strong cast of local and Japanese runners. Speaking of Japan, the Grade I action continues there with the Champions Cup -- formerly the Japan Cup Dirt. The All-Weather Championship marches on toward its Good Friday conclusion in England. And betcha can't guess who wins the world's best jockey title.

As always, if you can't get to the track, tune in to Horse Racing Radio Network for all the action and updates. Mike Penna and Jude Feld will be on-site at Gulfstream Park for the Claiming Crown. And for helpful hints, check out www.popejude.com.

Finally, with the holidays upon us, see "News and Notes" below for some thoughtful gifts for the readers on your shopping list!

Claiming Crown

There are nine races on the Claiming Crown card at Gulfstream Park this Saturday, all but one with double-digit fields and all monumentally competitive. The six-digit purses provide a well-deserved opportunity for horses who usually toil in the day-to-day grind of the sport -- and a unique opportunity to test handicapping skills.

A majority of the Claiming Crown runners are, of course, Florida-based. But in most races, they face rivals from around the country with the only common link the requirement that they started for a specific claiming price or less this year or last. The $200,000 Jewel, for example, features horses who last raced in New York, Kentucky, Maryland and Florida.

The event is a joint venture of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. The Claiming Crown has been held annually since 1999 and got much of its initial impetus during 10 editions at Canterbury Park in Minnesota. This is the fifth time Gulfstream Park has hosted with Parx, Fair Grounds and Ellis Park also on the roster.

Del Mar

Miss Temple City, the dual Grade I winner at 1 mile on the grass at Keeneland this year, would have had a good shot at winning the Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Mile next week at Sha Tin if her owners and trainer Graham Motion had decided to go. Instead, the 4-year-old Temple City filly stays at Santa Anita to contest Sunday's $300,000 Grade I Matriarch -- and drew the outside gate in a field of 12.

And it's not like she caught an easy field here, either. The opposition includes Time and Motion, winner of the Grade I Queen Elizabeth II at Keeneland last time out; Decked Out, second in the Grade I Del Mar Oaks; Roca Rojo, fresh off a win in the Grade III Athenia Stakes at Belmont Park; Zindaya and Tiz a Kiss, first and second in the Grade II Goldikova Stakes a month ago; and a trio of runners with success overseas.

The purse for the Hong Kong Sprint is HK$23 million, or just short of US$3 million.

A dozen, many of them familiar rivals, will contest Saturday's $300,000 Grade I Hollywood Derby at 9 furlongs on the turf.

Beach Patrol comes to the Derby with a season-long consistent record and won the Grade I Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park this summer. Camelot Kitten beat that rival by a head in their last outing, the Grade III Hill Prince Stakes at Belmont Park, his fourth graded win. Annals of Time was third in the Hill Prince in just his third career start. Frank Conversation, seventh in the Group 2 UAE Derby in Dubai in March, bounced back from a couple dismal outings to win the Grade II Twilight Derby on Breeders' Cup weekend at 37-1 odds. Free Rose and Blackjackcat, second and third in that heat, are back for this. Hayabusa raced in France and won her first U.S. start at Keeneland.

Vale Dori looks to wind up a successful season on a positive note in Saturday's $200,000 Grade II Bayakoa Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the main track. The Asiatic Boy filly started her career last year in Argentina, then moved to Dubai where she finished second to Polar River in the Group 3 UAE Oaks and fourth in the Group 2 UAE Derby.

Moved to California in the summer, Vale Dori has been in the money in all four starts, including a third in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes, albeit 11 3/4 lengths behind Stellar Wind and Beholder. Those two, obviously, are not in this race so the competition could be Gloryzapper, who won the Grade III L.A. Woman Stakes before finishing 11th in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, or Wild at Heart, second in the L.A. Woman.

Aqueduct

Bar of Gold seeks her first graded stakes win in Saturday's $250,000 Grade III Go For Wand Handicap for fillies and mares at 1 mile on the dirt. The Medaglia d'Oro filly has been close on numerous occasions with six placings in graded events, most recently a third in the Grade III Bed o' Roses Handicap at Belmont Park in June. Wonder Gal also has been competitive in some of those same races and will try again here. Highway Star, racing in state-bred competition, has shown a will to win that her more experienced rivals so far have lacked with four victories from six outings. High Ridge Road also has a high strike rate.

Woodbine

Canada's premier track presents its seasonal valedictory Sunday, the $150,000 (Canadian) Grade III Valedictory Stakes for 30-year-olds and up at 1 3/4 miles on the all-weather track. Seven signed on with Melmich the highweight at 121 pounds. The Wilco gelding won this last year and most recently was fourth in the Grade II Marathon Stakes at Santa Anita on Breeders' Cup weekend.

Turfway Park

The Holiday Meet is up and running at the northern Kentucky track with the notable addition of Wednesday racing, making a five-day week. "Over the last two years, field sizes for the holiday meet have averaged 10.6 horses," said General Manager Chip Bach. "I am confident our director of racing, Tyler Picklesimer, and his staff will be able to maintain similarly solid fields across five days." The meet runs through Dec. 31 and includes two stakes -- the 31st running of the 6-furlongs Holiday Inaugural Stakes for fillies and mares at 6 furlongs on Saturday and the 22nd running of the Prairie Bayou Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 17.

Internationally speaking:

Japan

Sunday's Grade 1 Champions Cup at Nagoya's Chukyo Racecourse -- the former Japan Cup Dirt -- has a talented field that includes four Grade 1 winners on the brown surface as well as some talented runners from Japan's municipal tracks. Copano Rickey combines those attributes as a two-time Grade 1 winner and fresh from victory in the Nanbu Hai in Morioka. Hokko Tarume will make his fifth start in this race and seek his second win. The Japan Racing Association summary of the field notes 7-year-old Hokko Tarume "has superior stubbornness on his side."

Australia

He or She, second in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes and third in the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes earlier in the season, will try for a restart in Saturday's Group 1 Peters Investments Kingston Town Classic, 1,800 meters at Ascot. He or She, a 6-year-old gelding, finished ninth in the Group 1 Railway Stakes going 200 meters shorter over the same course two weeks prior and will have to deal with much the same cast in this heat.

England

Battalion on Wednesday won the Betway Conditions Stakes at 10 furlongs on Polytrack at Lingfield Park, posing pleasant dilemma for his new connections. The 6-year-old gelding was sold for 70,000 guineas at Tattersalls last month to Melbourne 10 Racing and trainer Jamie Osborne. After Wednesday's 4-lengths win, Osborne said he's unsure whether to take Battalion to Dubai, where he has been accepted for the World Cup Carnival meeting.

"It is possible he could go to Meydan and, if he did, it is not impossible that he could come back for the Winter Derby and Finals Day (of the British All-Weather Championships)," the trainer said.

"We have got to decide whether we want to put him through that. The prize money in Dubai is very tempting, but then again we have super prize money here during the winter season and it looks like he will be one of the better mile and a quarter horses. We will let the dust settle and then make a decision. It is a bit of a headscratcher but it is a high-class head scratch."

On Saturday, Wolverhampton hosts a Fast-Track Qualifier at 5 furlongs for 3-year-olds.

Moore gets Longines Jockey Award

Ryan Moore will have two jobs during the leadup to the Dec. 11 Hong Kong International Races -- vying for his third victory in the International Jockey Challenge at Happy Valley Racecourse on Wednesday night and picking up the hardware for his second title in the past three years as Longines World's Best Jockey.

Moore won eight of the world's top 100 races to reclaim the title, scoring in five different countries on six different horses. He racked up a record 166 points -- 68 more than Christophe Soumillon, who finished second. The winner of the Hong Kong competition gets HK$200,000, or about US$25,000, and a trophy. The World's Best Jockey gets a trophy and a nice watch.

News and Notes

Looking for a gift for a racing fan? How about a new book by long-time racetracker John Perrotta -- "Half a Chance," now on sale? His second novel follows a down-and-out jockey agent who finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue and bad acting. It's a good, quick read and available through jockeytalk360.com if you can't find it on Amazon or thereabouts. Also, you'll never go wrong with any book by John McEvoy, the erudite and prolific author of the Jack Doyle mysteries, all well informed by his distinguished tenure as an observer and reporter on the sport.