Thu, 12/15/2011 - 16:39

Charles Town: Navy Chapel targets win No. 4

Navy Chapel will be trying for her fourth win of the year when she faces eight other 2-year-old West Virginia-accredited fillies in the $50,000 Eleanor Casey Memorial at Charles Town on Saturday evening.

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 16:38

Laurel Park: Jack's in the Deck tops Maryland Juvenile Championship

Barbara D. Livingston
Jack's in the Deck will add blinkers for Saturday's Maryland Juvenile Championship at Laurel Park.

Maryland 2-year-olds take center stage Saturday at Laurel Park when a pair of $75,000 events highlight the nine-race card. The Maryland Juvenile Championships will be contested as the sixth and eighth races, with a division for fillies and a division for colts and geldings, respectively. Both events will be run at a one-turn 7 1/2 furlongs.

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 16:34

Laurel Park: Plum goes for three in a row in fillies division of Maryland Juvenile Championship

Plum will try to make it three in a row, all for trainer Rodney Jenkins, when she squares off against six others in the filly division of the Maryland Juvenile Championship. Plum won her maiden Nov. 2 at Laurel going 1 1/16 miles. She came back Nov. 25 and won an optional claimer going a mile. Plum signaled her readiness with a bullet work Monday. Regular rider Travis Dunkelberger retains the mount.

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 16:15

Gulfstream Park: Coa's son set for U.S. riding debut

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Eibar Coa walked around the Gulfstream Park jockeys room just like old times Thursday, his miraculous recovery from the horrific spill here that had left him temporarily paralyzed last winter now well documented. But Coa’s visit had less to do with greeting old friends than being a proud papa, showing his 19-year-old son, Kieber, the ropes in preparation for accepting his first U.S. mount aboard Primpfedenel in Saturday’s second race.

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 15:38

Hollywood Park: Baffert takes three shots at another CashCall Futurity win

Shigeki Kikkawa
Drill, with Martin Garcia up, wins the Del Mar Futurity. Drill will try to prove himself at two turns in Saturday’s CashCall Futurity.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The list of winners that Bob Baffert has sent out in the CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park looks like a greatest-hits package for the Hall of Fame trainer. Since 1997, Baffert has won the race five times, with Real Quiet, Captain Steve, Point Given, Pioneerofthe Nile, and, two years ago, Lookin At Lucky.

“I’ve never won it with a bum,” Baffert said Thursday.

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 15:17

Hollywood: O'Neill has two shots for Grade 1

Benoit & Associates
Handsome Mike (right), Rafael Bejarano up, runs second to Stoney Fleece in the Generous.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Saturday’s $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park is trainer Doug O’Neill’s last best chance to grab a Grade 1 victory in 2011.

O’Neill is not expected to have leading contenders in the final two Grade 1 races of the year – the Malibu and La Brea stakes at Santa Anita after Christmas – but has two of the 13 runners in the CashCall in Basmati and Handsome Mike.

“I think we’ve got two serious chances in there,” O’Neill said. “I think we can win. I really do.”[bc_video_id:240403:]

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 14:58

Aqueduct: Speedsters clash in Gravesend

Bill Denver/Equi-Photo
This Ones for Phil, with Joe Bravo riding, wins the Decathlon at Monmouth Park, coming back after a 14-month layoff.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Rule by Night and This Ones for Phil, two of the fastest sprinters around when they are right, will take the bulk of the action in Saturday’s 53rd running of the $65,000 Gravesend Handicap.

The six-furlong Gravesend, won by the likes of Mr. Prospector and Honorable Miss in a bygone era, is race 8 and is the third leg of a late pick four with a $250,000 guarantee.

As a 3-year-old here last fall, Rule by Night won the seven-furlong Groovy overnight stakes in 1:20.67, just .63 of a second off the track record set by Artax in the 1999 Carter Handicap.

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 14:49

Gulfstream: Trickmeister begins comeback in Harlan's Holiday

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. − The much anticipated return of the undefeated Trickmeister will finally happen at Gulfstream on Saturday, when he makes his first start in nearly 16 months in the $60,000 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes.

Run at 1 1/16 miles, the Harlan’s Holiday came up very strong for an overnight stakes, also luring multiple graded stakes winner Duke of Mischief and steadily improving 3-year-old I’m Steppin’ It Up. The eight-horse field includes Trickmeister’s uncoupled stablemate, Boys At Tosconova, although he is not likely to start.

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 14:06

Tampa Bay Downs: Zeenut hoping to take on males in allowance feature

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Zeenut, a fast-closing third in her last outing, will take on the boys in Saturday’s allowance feature at Tampa Bay Downs if she can draw into the body of the race from the also-eligibles. Zeenut is part of a well-matched field of 14 turf runners entered in the mile and a sixteenth race. Only 10 will be allowed to start.

Thu, 12/15/2011 - 13:37

Turfway: Maker has pair of Kittens

Mike Maker nominated such stalwarts as Baryshnikov, Stately Victor, and Twinspired to run Saturday night in the $50,000 Prairie Bayou Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., but none will go. Instead, Maker will send out the uncoupled duo of Becky’s Kitten and William’s Kitten, both of them homebred 4-year-old sons of Kitten’s Joy owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsey.