Gold Coyote eyes dixieland at Oaklawn

Gold Coyote, who as a 2-year-old last year ran one of his division's highest Beyer Speed Figures, is scheduled to make his 2008 debut in the $50,000 Dixieland at Oaklawn Park, according to his trainer, Bret Calhoun. The 5o1/2-furlong race for 3-year-olds will be run on Oaklawn's opening-day card, Jan. 18.

"He's doing good," Calhoun said of Gold Coyote. "I'm going to work him three-quarters [of a mile] Thursday, then plan on working him probably a half the following Thursday, then run him the following Friday. That's the schedule he's on right now.

"We don't have a lot of time to change our schedule for the weather or anything like that. We're on a pretty tight schedule. But if everything goes smooth from here on, I think that's where he'll make his first start back."

Gold Coyote earned a Beyer of 102 for his 10-length win in the $125,000 Texas Stallion Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong race at Lone Star Park in July. One start later, he defeated open company in the track's Middleground Breeders' Cup, earning a Beyer of 99. Gold Coyote has been freshened since his last start, Sept. 1, when he finished fifth to future Grade 1 winner Wicked Style in the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity at Arlington Park.

Now based at Sam Houston Race Park, Gold Coyote worked a bullet five furlongs in 1:01 on Dec. 27. His two-turn debut is scheduled to come at the Houston track on Feb. 16, in the one-mile division of the $125,000 Texas Stallion Stakes. Gold Coyote is a son of the Seattle Slew stallion Gold Legend, and he races for his breeder, Clarence Scharbauer Jr.