ARCADIA, Calif. – Doinghardtimeagain is not the richest filly starting in Saturday’s $200,000 Evening Jewel Stakes for 3-year-old California-bred fillies at Santa Anita.
That distinction belongs to Tilde, who has earned $344,810 on the strength of three stakes wins at 2. Doinghardtimeagain has earned $236,270, largely from her win in the $196,000 Soviet Problem Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park last December.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – No horse comes into the $60,000 Rainbow at Oaklawn Park on Saturday sharper than Goods Gone West. He has won both of his starts at the meet and also owns the field’s best career Beyer Speed Figure.
The Rainbow is a six-furlong race restricted to 3-year-olds bred in Arkansas. The field of nine includes Hezunusal, who gave jockey Calvin Borel the 5,000th win of his career, and Rock City Roadhog, runner-up in last year’s $50,000 Razorback Futurity at Louisiana Downs.
NEW ORLEANS – Heavy On Themister has a chance to solidify his position as the top older Louisiana-bred in training when he races in the Costa Rising Stakes on Saturday at the Fair Grounds.
With all-time leading Louisiana-bred money winner Star Guitar off to stud, Heavy On Themister has asserted himself as the leader of the division.
“He’s really been training well,’’ trainer Shawn David said. “He seems to be a horse that just continues to develop.’’
NEW ORLEANS – The week of the Risen Star Stakes 13 months ago here at Fair Grounds, trainer Larry Jones opined that although Mr Bowling was the more highly regarded of his two horses going into that race, he believed Mark Valeski, handled properly, would turn out to be the better of the two, even though he had yet to run two turns, or in a stakes race.
Sunny Desert, who was just under 2-5 when she won a division of the New York Stallion Series on the main track last fall, figures to be a similar price against four rival New York-bred fillies and mares in Saturday’s $75,000 Broadway Stakes.
Sunny Desert breaks from the rail in the six-furlong race and shoulders 123 pounds, spotting four to six pounds to Nicole’s Miss El, Lady On the Run, Here’s Zealicious, and Clear Pasaj.
Arlington Park is seeking to reach a horsemen’s agreement for its upcoming 2013 meet with an organization representing owners and breeders instead of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, Illinois racing officials said Thursday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Her retirement put on hold, Successful Song will try secure her first graded stakes victory Saturday when she runs in the Grade 3, $150,000 Rampart Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Slander used a strong late rally to upset a tough group of allowance foes on the turf in her first start of the Tampa meeting in December. She looks well-placed to win her third race locally on Saturday when she heads a field of nine female turf runners in a one-mile, second-level optional claiming race.
Fernando De La Cruz, who has been aboard Slander in all four of her outings this meet, returns for veteran conditioner Forrest Kaelin.
Let’s face it, of all the ages and inclinations that categorize the Thoroughbred racehorse, it is the 3-year-old colts who do most of the heavy lifting, both in terms of public awareness and economic impact.
Another bunch of them will assemble Saturday, April 6, for the latest version of the Santa Anita Derby, for which the total purse is $750,000, the distance is 1 1/8 miles, and the consequences are considerable. Failure is not only an option, it is a certainty for all but one.
Over soggy, over a quagmire, or over a chewed-up mess, Optimizer has running on his mind once on the grass.
“He’s a warrior,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said of Optimizer, the emerging turf star who will be a solid favorite Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap on the Louisiana Derby undercard. “That son of a gun shows up every time.”
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