Marty McGee, Daily Racing Form LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If you start with the highweight and go from there, well, figuring out the Cardinal Handicap looks a bit tricky.The $100,000 Cardinal, the Saturday feature at Churchill Downs, will have Acoma as the 121-pound highweight, but off back-to-back last-place finishes, the 4-year-old filly seems a shaky proposition. As trainer David Carroll said: "We're more hopeful than confident."Acoma, with Jesus Castanon to ride, will break from post 3 in the Gr... Read Full Story

Following the overwhelming popularity of a three-date market test this spring, Churchill Downs will stage six special “Downs After Dark” nighttime racing programs under the lights in 2010.The announcement was made Nov. 17 during a news conference at the Louisville racetrack that also revealed Musco Lighting as the winning contract bidder to install permanent track lighting at Churchill Downs and a new online platform for patrons to purchase tickets to the track.Churchill Downs will host its u... Read Full Story

By Steve HaskinHall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who had been battling leukemia for most of the year, died peacefully at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. at 5:40 a.m. (EST) Nov. 16. He was 68. Frankel’s ex-wife, Bonita, and his daughter, Bethenny, were at his side. Juddmonte Farms racing manager Garrett O’Rourke said Frankel had recently returned home from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and was “very lucid and aware of his fate.”Frankel requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made... Read Full Story

Mike Welsch, Daily Racing Form MIAMI - When you're hot you're hot and when you're not you're not. The old adage certainly applied to the $200,000 Carl G. Rose Classic after Too Many Toyz registered his fourth straight victory with a thrilling one-length decision over the 3-5 favorite It's a Bird. The outcome completed a forgettable afternoon for It's a Bird's trainer, Marty Wolfson, and jockey, Julian Leparoux, who failed to win a race despite teaming up with odds-on favorites in four of the ... Read Full Story

By Jason ShandlerThe Stuyvesant Handicap (gr. III), which began in 1916 and has been run consecutively since 1963, has been canceled due to a lack of interest, stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes said Nov. 12.The Stuyvesant, a nine-furlong contest for 3-year-olds and up on the main track, was scheduled to be run Nov. 14 at Aqueduct. It carried a $100,000-added purse. Byrnes said it will not be rescheduled for this year.“We decided today because we only had five entries and two or three of them s... Read Full Story

David Grening, Daily Racing FormELMONT, N.Y. - It was another brutal Breeders' Cup for New York-based horses. One year after winning just 1 of 14 Breeders' Cup races - Maram in the Juvenile Fillies Turf - the New York-based contingent drew a blank in last week's Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita. Tapitsfly, this year's Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, did race three times in New York, but she spent most of the year in Kentucky with trainer Dale Romans.While a handful of turf horses ran well enough to... Read Full Story

David Grening, Daily Racing FormELMONT, N.Y. - It was another brutal Breeders' Cup for New York-based horses. One year after winning just 1 of 14 Breeders' Cup races - Maram in the Juvenile Fillies Turf - the New York-based contingent drew a blank in last week's Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita. Tapitsfly, this year's Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, did race three times in New York, but she spent most of the year in Kentucky with trainer Dale Romans.While a handful of turf horses ran well enough to... Read Full Story

Jay Privman, Daily Racing Form ARCADIA, Calif. - It's all over but the debating.Zenyatta's victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting has reignited the debate over the 2009 Horse of the Year between her and Rachel Alexandra, who had an equally brilliant year.Zenyatta, 5, won all five of her starts this year, once against older males, and showed up for the sport's year-end championship event, in which she beat a star-studded field to complete a perfect... Read Full Story

Jay Privman, Daily Racing Form ARCADIA, Calif. - It's all over but the debating.Zenyatta's victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting has reignited the debate over the 2009 Horse of the Year between her and Rachel Alexandra, who had an equally brilliant year.Zenyatta, 5, won all five of her starts this year, once against older males, and showed up for the sport's year-end championship event, in which she beat a star-studded field to complete a perfect... Read Full Story

By Blood-Horse StaffAll-sources handle for the 2009 Breeders’ Cup World Championships surpassed $150 million as global figures from Breeders’ Cup Saturday continue to be accumulated.Through Sunday, a total of $150,205,639 was wagered on the 14 races of the Championships and five additional Oak Tree Racing Association races, held Nov. 6-7. For last year’s two-day program, there were 21 races, one more race per day than this year.Breeders’ Cup estimates an additional $2-3 million in separate in... Read Full Story