Cold Cash 123, the reigning world champion Quarter Horse, will launch his 2012 campaign Saturday night in the Grade 1, $100,000 Leo Stakes at Remington Park. The 400-yard race drew a field of 10 and includes multiple Grade 1 winner Llano Teller.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Saturday’s $75,000 Broadway Stakes at Aqueduct will be the first start for one trainer and the last start for one horse.
Juan Coronel, who has served as an assistant to several trainers on this circuit, will send out his first starter in Risky Rachel, the morning-line favorite in the Broadway for New York-bred fillies and mares at six furlongs over the main track.
Two trainers handle six of the 10 entrants in the $75,000 Happy Ticket Stakes, the featured ninth race on Saturday at Fair Grounds, and a tag-team approach from these outfits might be enough to make favored Inspired vulnerable in the 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint.
And Inspired, from the look of things, will take some beating.
Star Guitar will make his next start on April 1 in the Costa Rising Stakes at Fair Grounds after additional funds were secured to boost the Costa Rising purse from $60,000 to $90,000, giving Star Guitar a chance to become the richest Louisiana-bred if he can win the race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Owner Adam Wachtel was at Aqueduct on Dec. 31, looking at a field of soon-to-be 3-year-olds in the paddock for a maiden race. While there were several horses that on form drew his interest, there was one that caught his eye from a physical standpoint.
That horse, Romancing the Gold, won the third race that day at 41-1. Shortly thereafter, Wachtel made inquiries into possibly purchasing the horse. Rebuked at first, Wachtel and his business partner Nils Brous kept tabs on the gelding.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Comedero is one of the best horses ever bred in Arkansas, and with the right kind of effort Saturday in the $75,000 Hot Springs at Oaklawn, he could get a shot at his home state’s biggest sprint race, the Grade 3, $250,000 Count Fleet Handicap.
The Hot Springs, at six furlongs, has drawn a field of 11. The group includes Riley Tucker, winner of the $50,000 King Cotton at Oaklawn in January; Silver Magnus, runner-up in last year’s Count Fleet; and Chief of Affairs, the defending champ in the Hot Springs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Roger Attfield is a nominee for induction into the National Racing Museum Hall of Fame for the first time this year. One reason for that honor is all the success he has had with veteran turf horses like Simmard, the starting highweight and likely co-favorite along with Newsdad in Saturday’s $150,000 Pan American at Gulfstream Park.
FLORENCE, Ky. – It would not be altogether surprising, nor unprecedented, for a maiden to win the $75,000 Rushaway Stakes. It happened eight years ago when a homebred named Brass Hat notched his first victory in the 1 1/16-mile race on the way to becoming a millionaire.
Mark Casse will send out the maiden Dynamical as one of the main contenders among the eight 3-year-olds entered to run Saturday at Turfway Park in the Rushaway, one of three undercard stakes on the 12-race Vinery Spiral program.
[bc_video_id:247053:]In a surprising year which two Turfway Park maiden winners, Hansen and Gemologist, are leading Kentucky Derby prospects, it’s apropos that another Turfway maiden winner, In Lingerie, has a chance to shine Saturday in a minor Kentucky Oaks prep, the Grade 3, $100,000 Bourbonette at Turfway on the Vinery Racing Spiral undercard.
Although moving into a stakes race for the first time, In Lingerie is the most likely favorite over a field that includes Grade 3 Miesque winner More Than Love and the stakes-placed Bourbonstreetgirl.
FLORENCE, Ky. – Another winter of discontent is melting away at Turfway Park, where temperatures reached record highs earlier this week. Yet another legislative session went by without passage of a law or referendum that could provide for alternative gaming at Kentucky racetracks, a development that has further deepened the fiscal crisis that enshrouds this 52-year-old track.
