WHO’S HOT

ARCADIA, Calif. – Cat Talk was beaten 1 1/4 lengths in a troubled trip in an allowance race on March 3, a loss that left trainer Jim Cassidy frustrated.

Cat Talk was in traffic on the rail with a furlong remaining in that one-mile turf race. With a clean trip, Cassidy has a strong opinion of where Cat Talk could have finished.

“He wins,” Cassidy said. “Now we’ve got to do it again.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It looks like it will be the speed of Sportswriter versus the closing kick of Zetterholm in Friday’s $75,000 Patsyprospect Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.

Sportswriter, trained by Rudy Rodriguez, will be stretching out from six furlongs to a one-turn mile in the Patsyprospect, which drew a field of five and will go as race 8 of 9.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tom Proctor likes to think he learned a thing or two from his dad, the late legendary trainer Willard Proctor, and the results often show. The younger Proctor never rushes a good horse, and that helps explain why a big gelding named Monastic has had just one start since an eye-catching victory last fall over the Churchill Downs turf.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – This side of Disney World, there aren’t many happier places right now than the city of Lexington. Days after seeing their beloved Kentucky Wildcats knock out their eighth NCAA basketball championship, area sports fans still have hoarse voices and “One Shining Moment” ringing in their ears.

Better still, the party is rolling right along. Thousands of blue-clad revelers will shift their hootin’ and hollerin’ Friday from hoops to horse racing when the 15-day spring meet opens at Keeneland Race Course.

[bc_video_id:248115:]Here's my race-by-race rundown of Friday's pick four at Aqueduct on April 6, 2012. I'm building my wager with TicketMaker, found exclusively on DRF.com.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sam-Son Farm has shuffled the deck this year, and the big winner is Malcolm Pierce, who now will be the outfit’s only trainer at Woodbine.

Losing out is Mark Frostad, who succeeded Jim Day as Sam-Son’s trainer in 1994 but has been taking on outside clients while his Sam-Son numbers diminished over the past few seasons.

Both trainers had their usual winter contingents at the Fair Grounds, but Sam-Son runners formerly in Frostad’s care – including stakes winners Eye of the Leopard, Hotep, and Forest Uproar – have moved under Pierce’s shed row.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rusty Arnold nearly won the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes two years ago at Keeneland for owner Alex Campbell Jr. when It’s Tea Time, an 18-1 shot, came up a neck short of catching Evening Jewel.

This year, Arnold will send out an Ashland starter at considerably lower odds when Karlovy Vary breaks from the middle of the seven-filly pack Saturday. Like It’s Tea Time, Karlovy Vary is a Campbell homebred by Dynaformer entering the Ashland off a victory over the Gulfstream Park turf.

Optimizer, the runner-up in the Grade 2, $500,000 Rebel at Oaklawn, remains on target for the Arkansas Derby and could have his final work for the race on Tuesday, said his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas. Optimizer had a major work here Monday, going six furlongs in 1:12.60 under jockey Jon Court.

“It was an outstanding work,” said Lukas. “I wanted it to be a little more significant, not a maintenance work. I wanted him to finish and he did. He came home in 23 and change.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Undefeated Gemologist drew post 6 in a field of eight 3-year-olds entered Wednesday for Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

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