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The Kentucky Oaks field that has morphed a good deal since entry day last Saturday took another twist on Thursday morning when Bella Ballerina was declared out with a minor injury, trainer Brendan Walsh said. The scratch allows Resist to make the starting gate.
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The $1.25 million Iowa Festival of Racing in July and the $1.25 million Iowa Classic card in September will again anchor the Prairie Meadows meet that opens on Saturday.
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Unbeaten on turf last year, Deterministic will get back to business with high expectations in the Fort Marcy on Saturday at Aqueduct.
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Workout watching has become an increasingly popular pastime in the age-old quest to sort out the top contenders and ultimately pick the winner of the Kentucky Derby. This year's talented crop of 3-year-olds has done its very best to make that task a lot more challenging than usual.
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Racing, perhaps more than any other sport, is about family. Working with horses isn't as much a job as it is a way of life. The 24/7, 365-day nature of the profession makes it this way.
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Bill Mott took a look at the prospective field for the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile, a Grade 2 with a million-dollar purse. To hell with the second-level allowance race he had circled for the French import Temptable. Why not go for the gold?
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Coming off its best year in recent memory, one which saw betting handle at Emerald Downs increase by 36 percent, everything appears to be hunky-dory on just about every imaginable front as the Auburn, Wash, track begins a 51-day meet on Saturday.
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The Kentucky Derby will command center stage as always on the first Saturday of May at Churchill Downs, although die-hard racing fans and hardcore horseplayers might agree the event they are most clamoring to see on the 14-race program is the Grade 1, $1 million Churchill Downs Stakes.
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Seven of the 10 entrants in Saturday's Grade 2, $600,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint are exiting the Shakertown Stakes. But the one you want in the Twin Spires isn't necessarily the Shakertown winner.
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It is not a particularly strong field for a Grade 2, and so what? The defection of Gold Phoenix from the Charles Whittingham Stakes gives the longest shot in the field a better chance to spring an upset Saturday at Santa Anita.
