OZONE PARK, N.Y. – By no means does owner Jim Riccio Sr. have Derby fever. But his 3-year-old The Truth and K G gave him something to think about with his first-level allowance win Thursday at Aqueduct.

Attempting two turns for the first time, The Truth and K G put away a pace challenge from debut winner Now and Then and held off the late-running Go Get the Basil – who had won three consecutive races – to win by a nose. The Truth and K G, trained by Rudy Rodriguez, ran a mile and 70 yards in 1:42.01 and both he and Go Get the Basil earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Eblouissante, the unbeaten half-sister to 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, will have her stakes debut postponed until the spring after disappointing trainer John Shirreffs in a workout at Betfair Hollywood Park on Friday.

Eblouissante worked six furlongs in 1:16.80, a slower time than Shirreffs wanted. Eblouissante was considered a candidate for the $300,000 Santa Margarita Stakes over 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita next Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Teddy’s Promise can continue a perfect season at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with a victory in Sunday’s $100,000 Las Flores Stakes for female sprinters.

Since the meeting began in late December, Teddy’s Promise has won the Kalookan Queen Handicap over 6 1/2 furlongs by 5 1/4 lengths on Dec. 29 and the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes over seven furlongs by three lengths Jan. 26. The wins have helped to erase the disappointment of her eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint here last November.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Wesley Ward has been anxiously awaiting the opportunity to try his Grade 1-placed filly Sweet Shirley Mae around two turns. He will finally get that chance Sunday when Sweet Shirley Mae goes 1 1/16 miles against six other 3-year-old fillies in the afternoon’s $54,500 co-feature at Gulfstream Park.

NEW ORLEANS – Veteran jockey Pat Johnson arrived at the Fair Grounds at the start of this meet with no agent and one prospective mount.

Through Thursday, Johnson had won eight races, including three on extra-long shots, from 62 mounts at the meet. He and agent Laura Ball, who began working for him around Christmastime, are fielding requests from more and more trainers.

Business is trending up, and Johnson and Ball are thrilled with how it’s going.

“It’s unexpected, very unexpected,” Johnson said.

By David Grening

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Only Mother Nature seems capable these days of cooling off trainer Linda Rice, who entered the weekend having won seven of the last 11 races in which she has participated at Aqueduct.

A nor’easter forced Aqueduct to cancel Friday’s card, keeping two of Rice’s runners in the barn. On Saturday, she was scheduled to run two horses, including her top sprinter N.F.’s Destiny. On Sunday, Rice has two horses in both the fourth and seventh races.

2015 Racing Dates

May 15 - September 12 (Thursday - Sunday)

Post Times: 6:30 p.m. CT (Thursday, Friday; Saturdays in August); 12:45 p.m. CT (Saturday, Sunday and Holidays); 4 p.m. CT (Special July 3rd racing)

Handicapping Information

Friday’s nine-race card at Aqueduct was canceled due to a Nor’easter that brought a mixture of heavy, wet snow and rain to the area.

Aqueduct had two inches of snow overnight and there was the possibility of more snow and/or rain possible until noon Friday.

It was the sixth weather-related cancellation of the inner-track meet. On Thursday, New York Racing Association officials announced the inner-track meet would be extended by a week due to this week’s inclement weather. The main track is now scheduled to open for racing on March 20.

ARCADIA, Calif. – An unraced 3-year-old filly was euthanized in the Santa Anita stable area on Tuesday from the effects of equine herpesvirus, or EHV-1, the California Horse Racing Board announced in a statement on Thursday.

The filly, My Sugar Sugar, was trained by Eddie Truman.

The filly’s death is not expected to result in a quarantine of the Santa Anita barn area, according to Dr. Rick Arthur, the racing board’s equine medical director.

“If I thought a quarantine was necessary, we’d do it,” he said.

Diamond Joe will make his much-anticipated 2013 debut when a compact field of six older Nebraska-breds meet in the $25,000-added Ogataul Stakes going six furlongs at Fonner Park on Saturday.

As a 3-year-old last year, Diamond Joe attracted a bit of national attention when a he put together a nine-race win streak that ended with a disappointing effort in the Oklahoma Derby last fall. He won seven stakes during the streak in Nebraska, then added an allowance win at Remington while prepping for the Oklahoma Derby.