ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Greg Gilchrist is hoping that the old Beyond Brilliant will show up in Saturday's $60,000-added Albany Handicap at six furlongs. Or even the new one.
New or old, Beyond Brilliant will have to be at his best in what promises to perhaps the deepest sprint stakes in northern California this year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Whata Brainstorm, a multiple graded stakes winner who has made just three starts in the last 20 months, returns to action Friday in a 1 3/8-mile turf allowance race at Aqueduct.
Whata Brainstorm may not be the fittest, but he is certainly the most accomplished among the nine entrants in the $58,000 race. Three horses were entered for the main track only.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A potential rainstorm on Friday night should not keep Bills Paid from giving a top effort in the seventh race at Hollywood Park.
The race is scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, but a storm could force a shift to the main track. Bills Paid is proven over either surface.
A 4-year-old, Bills Paid finished third in the San Miguel Stakes and Baldwin Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita in 2001. The San Miguel was run on a fast track and the Baldwin was run over a sloppy track after the race was moved from the turf.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Veteran trainer Blackie Huffman wanted to ease Roxelana back into her racing career, and the feature race Friday at Churchill Downs fits that plan perfectly. The $58,200 allowance race is a spot that permits Roxelana to dodge bullets she would have faced Saturday in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff. She will be heavily favored to take down the winner's share against this much softer field.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winners Tails of the Crypt and Barbeau Ruckus are among the six runners in Friday's $89,000 feature, which is a prep for the Sir Barton Stakes.
Open Concert, Mind Body Soul, Recite, and Malmaison will also compete in the 1 1/16-mile classified allowance for 3-year-olds.
Cole Norman, the nation's third leading trainer by wins, will give most of the 80 horses in his care the rest of the year off after the Louisiana Downs meet closes on Sunday.
"We're not going to be running the six to eight head every day. Just stakes," said Norman, who plans to base at Louisiana Downs, which operates as a training center after the meet ends, and ship in for stakes at Fair Grounds, Delta Downs and Sam Houston Race Park.
MIAMI - There was little doubt trainer Jim Hatchett had far and away the best crop of 2-year-olds on the grounds at the mid-point of the season, with such promising youngsters as Hear No Evil, Massive, Crimson and Roses, Awesome of Course, and Scrubs in the barn.
Unfortunately for Hatchett, only Scrubs was eligible for the rich Florida Stallion Stakes. And during the summer at Calder there are virtually no options for talented juveniles ineligible for the Stallion series.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Only the Best, a two-time stakes winner this fall, will miss the $125,000 Hollywood Prevue Stakes on Nov. 23 due to a tender shin, trainer Brian Lynch said.
The setback was detected following Only the Best's two-length win in the six-furlong Sunny Slope Stakes at Santa Anita Oct. 19. In late September, Only the Best won his first stakes in the Malcolm Anderson Stakes at Bay Meadows, scoring by four lengths.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Nick Zito is proving that patience is not only a virtue, it's profitable as well.
Since Oct. 9, between Keeneland, Churchill, and Aqueduct, Zito has won 12 races, eight with 2-year-old maidens. After finishing in a tie for second in the Keeneland trainer standings, Zito has five wins at Aqueduct, second only to Richard Dutrow Jr.'s six.
Sunland Park near El Paso, Texas, hopes to crack the Kentucky Derby prep market next spring and lure some nationally prominent 3-year-olds to its $500,000 WinStar Derby, a new 1 1/16-mile race to be run March 30. The WinStar will be the richest race in track history and will serve as the middle leg of a $250,000 bonus series tied into the Lone Star Derby.
