INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It is always welcome when a stallion gets a Grade 1 winner in his first crop, and the filly Willa B Awesome has carried the flag admirably for new California sire Awesome Gambler.
Four weeks after an upset victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks, Willa B Awesome carries the banner for California breeding when she starts Saturday as the top horse on a $1.1 million California Gold Rush program for statebreds at Hollywood Park.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The $125,000 Tiznow Stakes might have been a showcase for the country’s top sprinter. Instead, the 7 1/2-furlong race is a wide-open scramble.
“I’m obviously grateful Amazombie is not in there, he beat us pretty handily last year,” said Gary Mandella, trainer of Tiznow starter Mobilized.
The decision to ship 2011 winner Amazombie to Churchill Downs for a $400,000 stakes has turned the Tiznow (race 9) into one of the most perplexing races on the 10-race Gold Rush card.
[bc_video_id:250178:]GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – There is no shortage of quality speed in the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile at Lone Star Park on Saturday. Canonize is coming off a stakes win at the distance in a rapid 1:33.89. Endorsement set a track record in his most recent start, while Hurricane Ike put up strong fractions last out in his first race since October.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Even as Bill Mott tries to explain that Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Westchester is just a prep for To Honor and Serve to get to next month’s Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap, it’s hard to believe the Hall of Fame trainer won’t have his horse ready for a big effort.
And even though the seven-horse field for the Westchester includes fellow Grade 1 winners Boys At Tosconova and Jersey Town – both with recent good form – it’s hard to believe To Honor and Serve isn’t still the horse to beat in the first graded event of the Belmont spring/summer meet.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Riding the River, a successful layoff horse, will prep for the Grade 2 Connaught Cup Stakes in the seven-furlong feature on Saturday at Woodbine. The third-level allowance, with an $80,000-claiming option, has also lured 2010 Queen’s Plate winner Big Red Mike and the winter-raced Hunters Bay.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Derby buzz has been fairly light this past week, but that’s what happens when less than half the prospective field has made it through the Churchill Downs stable gate. A little pick-me-up is on order, however, and not just in the form of fashionably late arrivals and busier mornings: Churchill will begin its 39-day spring meet and Derby week Saturday with a nighttime program that promises to kick things up a few needed notches.
AUBURN, Wash. – Send Silver and Kooky Saluki, a pair of 4-year-olds with terrific potential, headline the feature race Saturday at Emerald Downs. A $25,000 claimer for non-winners of two, the main event is the eighth of nine races on a program that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Union Rags, one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby, arrived at Churchill Downs shortly before 2 p.m. on Thursday and was bedded down in barn 42, stall 10, the same stall from which Barbaro won the 2006 Kentucky Derby. Union Rags, like Barbaro, is trained by Michael Matz.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Two years ago, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. sent the New York-bred Yawanna Twist to the Preakness, where he ran a respectable fourth, beaten less than two lengths by Lookin At Lucky.
In three weeks, Dutrow is seriously considering sending another New York-bred, Zetterholm, to the Preakness, if he can get into the second leg of the Triple Crown.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Anita Cauley has been asked the question more than a few times: Why didn’t On Fire Baby run in the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park as a logical final prep for the Kentucky Oaks?
“I went back-and-forth on whether to run there or not before I just finally decided to wait for the Oaks,” said Cauley, who bred and owns On Fire Baby, a gray filly who figures as one of the favorites next Friday in the 138th running of the $1 million Oaks.
