This is the time of year when 2-year-olds, not 3-year-olds, became the focus of racing at Quarter Horse venues nationwide.
At Los Alamitos, the year’s first futurity, the Kindergarten, will have 300-yard time trials on May 6 and a $400,000-estimated final on May 20. Later, there are three seven-figure futurities in June, November, and December at Los Alamitos.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Overvalued is one they will have to catch in an $29,300 allowance race for fillies and mares that headlines an eight-race card at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint attracted seven stakes winners, including Dashing Daisy who was voted the 2011 champion older female in British Columbia.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Ralph Biamonte, who won nine stakes with his 2-year-olds here last year, will be looking to get back into the swing of things when he sends out Roses and Shine for Sunday’s $150,000 Fury Stakes.
Roses and Shine wintered at Crupi’s New Castle Farm in the Ocala, Fla., area along with stablemates Menlo Castle, Run in Aruba, and Jenna’s Wabbit, all of whom contributed to the Biamonte juvenile stakes fund.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Kitty’s Got Class, an Ontario-sired filly who won two stakes here last season, will be making her seasonal bow in the Fury for trainer Mike DePaulo.
Racing for Denny Andrews and the late Dr. Mike Colterjohn, Kitty’s Got Class won the six-furlong Victorian Queen for Ontario-sired 2-year-old fillies and the six-furlong Fanfreluche for Ontario-breds before being well-beaten in the open Glorious Song at seven furlongs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Wednesday racing kicks in next week, with first post set for 6:45 p.m.
Wednesday night racing also brings back "Bet Night Live,” which is scheduled to air on The Score from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. each Wednesday through the balance of the meeting.
Jason Portuondo will join Laura Diakun as the new co-host on the show, which also will feature Jim Bannon as analyst and Sandy Hawley and Natalie Zak in supporting roles.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The first appearance at Churchill Downs of Union Rags and a somewhat unorthodox six-furlong work by I’ll Have Another at Hollywood Park highlighted Friday’s Kentucky Derby activity report across the country.
Union Rags looked very impressive during a routine gallop under regular exercise Peter Brette after the renovation on a cold, crisp morning at Churchill Downs. Union Rags is scheduled to have his final Derby work, weather permitting, on Saturday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – When jockey James Graham allowed Upperline to drop back from first to third in a slow-paced running of Thursday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Bewitch Stakes at Keeneland, her connections and those that bet her had a right to feel anxious.
Luckily, Graham and Upperline never showed the nerves those watching might have felt, and she rallied in the stretch under Graham to win by 1 1/2 lengths over Woodford Belle.
From April 21-26, trainer Graham Motion finished second with six of 11 starters, including a heart-breaking nose loss with Eagle Poise in the San Juan Capistrano at Santa Anita.
In Saturday’s $90,000 Inside Information Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, Motion can finish second and still win the race.
That’s because Motion sends out the uncoupled entry of Zucchini Flower and Proud Pearl in the one-turn mile race.
STICKNEY, Ill. – Denham has not won a stakes since he captured the 2011 Milwaukee Avenue Handicap last spring at Hawthorne, but his turn might be coming again. At 12-1 on the morning line, Denham merits a long look as he tries to score a Milwaukee Avenue repeat in the last of six $125,000 Illinois-bred stakes races Saturday at Hawthorne.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Two weeks after he suffered two broken ribs in a frightening spill at Santa Anita, jockey Martin Pedroza returns to riding with two mounts on Saturday’s 10-race California Gold Rush program at Betfair Hollywood Park.
Pedroza, 46, has a very good reason to be ready to ride Saturday. He rides favored Willa B Awesome in the $300,000 Melair Stakes for 3-year-old fillies in the day’s sixth race.
