OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Bam’s Bliss Kiss has won five straight races. Collect the Data has won three consecutive and four of her last five. Further, they both have achieved their success in the same front-running manner.
So, something will have to give when both attempt to claim their first stakes victory in Sunday’s $135,000 Biogio’s Rose Stakes for New York-bred females going one mile at Aqueduct.
Saffie Joseph Jr. had things pretty easy when Cooey first entered his barn late last year and rattled off two straight victories, but the filly hit a wall when she stepped up to face open-company winners in January. Still winless this year, her trainer believes she is due for a breakthrough in the seventh race on Sunday at Gulfstream Park, a first-level allowance on dirt.
After the long fall and winter stand at Mahoning Valley Racetrack in Youngstown, the Ohio Thoroughbred circuit is on the move. Spring and summer action in the Buckeye State begins with Thistledown’s meet opener on Monday in North Randall, just outside of Cleveland. Belterra Park in Cincinnati will follow, opening its season on Friday, May 1.
An eight-race Monday program kicks off Thistledown’s 100-day live racing season, which runs through Oct. 8. The track runs four days a week, generally on a Monday-Thursday schedule.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The dwindling female dirt division visits Santa Anita for the Grade 3 Santa Maria Stakes on Sunday.
Just five fillies and mares, including two from low-level claiming races, entered the Santa Maria, a 1 1/16-mile race downgraded this year from Grade 2 to Grade 3. The purse of the Santa Maria underwent a similar pitch, from $200,000 to $100,000.
Hawthorne Racecourse, the Chicago-area Thoroughbred track currently undergoing bankruptcy reorganization, opens its live meet Sunday after a roughly three-week delay due to the track’s recent bankruptcy filing.
The track has drawn seven races, all of them claiming or maiden claiming, for its opening-day card, attracting a total of 42 horses. The total amount of purses for the seven races is $82,500, or an average of just less than $12,000 per race, far below the overall industry average of $41,517 in 2025.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Henro might have to run down Red State to win the featured eighth race Sunday at Oaklawn Park.
At least that’s one take on the allowance sprint for 4-year-olds and up that carries a claiming option of $62,500. The six-furlong race has a purse of $127,000.
Henro is a serious closing sprinter who has registered three of his five career wins at Oaklawn. He could get a decent setup behind Osbourne, a speed horse who breaks from the rail, and Devil’s Tower, who figures to show pace from post 3.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Mad House ran arguably the best race of his young career in the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap last weekend at Oaklawn Park and now he could take his sharp form to either Churchill Downs or Laurel Park.
Mad House was a determined half-length winner over Roll On Big Joe in the Count Fleet. He covered six furlongs on a fast track in 1:08.93 and for the effort earned his best Beyer Speed Figure, a 102. Mad House invaded off an allowance win at Tampa Bay Downs.
The Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, and a myriad of undercard stakes featuring top-level runners at Churchill Downs will dominate much of the attention in the coming weeks. But down the highway in Lexington, more Thoroughbreds also will be contesting the pinnacle of the sport in which they’ve found a home.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Among all the comebackers in Sunday’s featured fifth race, War Strategy has been off the longest. But he may have the best chance in the five-furlong dash because he wintered in Florida, unlike the others.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 2, $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday has all the makings of a classic renewal of the storied race with reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty and Triple Crown warrior Journalism both launching their 4-year-old seasons against an elite older horse in White Abarrio.
The 1 1/8-mile fixture will be showcased on a 12-race card that includes two other stakes, the $200,000 Bathhouse Row, which offers a berth into the Preakness, and the $200,000 Valley of the Vapors.
