On dirt, Dynamic Strike is a head shy of being a two-time stakes winner this season in Maryland. But he has never raced or worked out on turf, the surface that will be used for a pair of $75,000 stakes for Pennsylvania-breds on Saturday at Parx Racing.
Arnold and Ellen Zetcher, owners of San Diego Handicap contender Liaison, know all about miracle recoveries. They were there at Santa Anita in March of 2011 when their 4-year-old filly Always a Princess fractured both sesamoids in her left fore while fighting with the accomplished Switch on the lead in the prestigious Santa Margarita Invitational.
Barbara Livingston gets up close and personal with exercise rider Patti Krotenko, a mainstay at the Todd Pletcher barn who has ridden some of the best racehorses in the last decade.
This is part two of DRF Weekend's two-part series offering a glimpse into the lives of a few of racing's unsung heroes, otherwise known as exercise riders.
Officials at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., have released the stakes schedule for the 2013 fall meet with just minor revisions from what has been standard fare for years.
Barbara Livingston offers a closer look at exercise rider Carmen Rosas, a veteran who has ridden the likes of Curlin, My Miss Aurelia, and Tapizar.
Golden Ticket, whose steady improvement last summer culminated in a dead heat for the win with Alpha in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Travers, is on the march again, and Saturday’s $100,000 Prairie Meadows Handicap at 1 1/4 miles is his next tour stop.
Mylute will get a much more favorable pace scenario in Saturday's Jim Dandy at Saratoga than he did when he finished third in the Preakness.
Princess of Sylmar’s 38-1 win over a quality field of 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 3 sent many handicappers and fans back to the Daily Racing Form and pedigree books to more closely examine her past performances and lineage. The win also generated a lot of anticipation for the next start for Ed Stanco’s homebred, since it would give the filly a chance to prove that her upset win at Churchill Downs was not a fluke.
Verrazano, winner of the Grade 1 Wood Memorial, drew the outside post in a seven-horse field entered Friday and was made the 9-5 morning-line favorite over Preakness winner Oxbow for Sunday’s $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.
