Horse Racing News on July 2, 2010

If Speed Demon is to pull a mild upset Saturday in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs, he most likely will have to pay closer attention to business than in his last start.

The last three months of Cozi Rosie's career have been geared toward Saturday's $250,000 American Oaks on the turf at Hollywood Park.

Not Bourbon's popular win in the 2008 Queen's Plate was certainly memorable for Roger Attfield, because it was his eighth triumph in Canada's best-known race, a milestone that put him in a tie for the trainer with the most Plate victories.

It's boy vs. girl at Sandown Park on Saturday when Twice Over and Dar Re Mi go toe-to-toe in the $750,000 Eclipse Stakes.

Johnny Sellers, who rode Carry Back to victory in the 1961 Kentucky Derby and Preakness and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 2007, died early Friday morning in an Arkansas nursing home, according to his son Mark.

Step by step, trainer Todd Pletcher stretched out Discreetly Mine from six furlongs in January to the Kentucky Derby at 1 1/4 miles on the first Saturday in May.

The partnership that owns Compari may wait until race day to decide the participation of their four-time stakes winner in Sunday's $150,000 American Handicap at Hollywood Park.

As a deputy of sorts when California-based trainer Bob Baffert ships horses to New York, John Terranova has been around some extremely talented runners.

Rightly So, beaten one-half length by Hour Glass in the Grade 2 Vagrancy Handicap last out, tries again for her first graded stakes score when she meets seven fillies and mares entered in Monday's Grade 3, $150,000 Bed o' Roses Handicap.

Kent Desormeaux, who had flown in from New York to ride Hold Me Back for trainer Bill Mott in Thursday's $216,400 Dominion Day Stakes, was taken off his mount by the stewards after failing a breathalyzer test.