VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Barbara Heads is off to a strong start at Hastings with three wins from her first nine starters. Last year Heads started 30 horses before she won her third race with Dream in the Dark on May 14. Heads credit racing at Turf Paradise this winter as one of the reasons for her quick start.
It was the first time Heads spent the winter in Phoenix and she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Steve Henson and his son Robbie Henson were part of the Hastings contingent at Turf Paradise. Officially the horses ran under Robbie’s name and he won 10 races from 66 starters. They also shipped a few horses to Santa Anita where running under Steve’s name they had three thirds from nine starters.
“I am happy to be home,” said Steve Henson. “I missed my wife and grandkids. Arizona is nice place to winter but, honestly, I loved California more. California is where racing is at.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Lisa Lewis has raced at numerous tracks throughout the United States, campaigning in California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York during her career that began in 1991.
Now, the 42-year-old Lewis has set up shop at Woodbine with 25 horses for owner William Schettine, for whom she has been a private trainer for two years.
“William Schettine raced here before and kept wanting to come back,” Lewis said. “He has several Shakespeares, and they seemed to have a lot of luck here, on turf and synthetics.”
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Reigning Livia will shoot for her fourth win over the Tampa Bay Downs strip this season when she tops a field of six optional-claming sprinters in the 6 1/2-furlong headliner.
Ronnie Allen Jr will handle Reigning Livia as she makes her first start for Gerald Bennett after being claimed for $16,000 from Midwest Thoroughbreds Inc. and trainer Jamie Ness from a second-place finish in her last outing. Reigning Livia is entered under the first-level allowance option of Saturday’s race.
PHOENIX – Turf Paradise puts the spotlight on the home-grown product Saturday, with five stakes for Arizona-breds, headed by the $50,000 Gene Fleming Breeders’ Derby. The 1 1/16-mile event for 3-year-olds, race 7 on the nine-race card, drew a field of eight, headed by multiple stakes winner A Political Time.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – How do you make a horse trainer’s cell phone never stop ringing? Run off the TV screen and earn a 103 Beyer Speed Figure the first time you race. That’s what a 3-year-old colt named Bourbon Courage did in making his career debut in early February at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
“The phone was ringing off the hook,” said Kellyn Gorder, who trains Bourbon Courage for the partnership of Bourbon Lane Stable and Wayne Lynn.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Random Highs ran a huge race to win a $12,500 claiming sprint at Hastings last Sunday and she is certainly capable of handling the challenge of stepping up in class when she runs in a $17,500 claiming race for fillies and mares that will serve as Saturday’s feature.
Will she be able to come back with another strong performance in just six days? If she can, she’ll be tough to beat in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint, which drew eight horses and goes as race 6 on a seven-race card that begins at 1:50 p.m. Pacific.
When reigning Eclipse champion Acclamation was nominated to Saturday’s running of the Grade 2, $150,000 San Francisco Mile for his possible 2012 debut, Golden Gate Fields officials took notice.
When trainer Donald Warren followed Plan A and entered Acclamation in the Grade 3 Inglewood at Hollywood Park, trainers of other San Francisco Mile nominees took notice, and 11 entered runners in Northern California’s top stakes race for older runners.
Two horses who narrowly missed winning a Grade 3 stakes and another who captured a Grade 3 event in his most recent start – albeit nearly six months ago – are part of a deeper than usual edition of the $75,000 Henry Clark Stakes at Pimlico. Several of the horses are using the Clark as a prep for the Grade 2, $300,000 Dixie Stakes on the May 19 Preakness undercard.
