OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The connections of only two of the five horses entered in Saturday’s $65,000 Garland of Roses were ever intent on running in the six-furlong race for fillies and mares at Aqueduct.
So while on paper C.C.’s Pal looks like the class of the field, it might be wise to boil this race down to Ms Vanenzza and Cinco de Mayo Mio. The Delaware shipper Ms Vanenzza looks the stronger of the two, considering the competition she was facing earlier in the year.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Awesome Fire and Evil Kitten finished one-two in a first-level allowance at a mile and 70 yards here at Woodbine on Oct. 28. But the uncoupled stablemates from the Nick Gonzalez barn both are well below the radar heading into Saturday’s $150,000 Ontario Lassie Stakes for Ontario-foaled 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.
Awesome Fire is owned by Hugh Sutherland Jr., whose nom du course is Urban Fire Corp and whose sister, Chantal Sutherland, will be coming in from California for the mount.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For dyed-in-the-wool horseplayers, winter didn’t officially start in south Florida until the first week of January, when Gulfstream Park would traditionally open for one of the premier race meets in North America. But winter will come early in 2011, courtesy of Gulfstream’s decision to break tradition and kick off the new season Saturday, a full month earlier than usual.
The 10-race program is highlighted by the $100,000 Spectacular Bid Stakes for 2-year-olds. The 2011-12 session continues through April 8.
After leading every step of an Oct. 16 allowance sprint on Polytrack at Keeneland, there wasn’t really anything that fit Five Star Fun at Churchill Downs.
“So we just kept her there in Kentucky for the race there at Turfway Park,” said trainer Al Stall, who otherwise has moved his entire stable to Fair Grounds in his hometown of New Orleans.
Five Star Fun, a 5-year-old mare owned by the Colombine Stable of Andrea Pollack, will be among the top contenders when making her 12th and final career start Saturday in the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural at Turfway in Florence, Ky.
NEW ORLEANS − It’s a sign of the times: Rapid Redux, the most famous claiming-class horse in the world, won’t be in New Orleans on Saturday.
That’s when Fair Grounds will be hosting five Claiming Crown races. At its birth in 1999 the Claiming Crown got billed as the Breeders’ Cup for claimers, a day when blue-collar equines could step onto a national stage. Rapid Redux has won 20 races in a row, a modern American record. His name has made it onto home pages of racing websites worldwide and he has even come up as a Horse of the Year candidate.
Eighttofasttocatch, a winner in each of his three previous stakes starts at Laurel Park this season, takes a distinct class drop from a Grade 2 stakes to face Maryland-breds in Saturday’s $75,000 Jennings Handicap. Although Eighttofasttocatch has found an ideal spot, bettors seeking a better price have three viable alternatives to the logical favorite among his five rivals in the one-turn dirt mile.
Keith Bourgeois won his 2,000th race as a trainer on Wednesday night, when Dynamic Time ($8.40) scored by a nose in the sixth race at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
Bourgeois registered the first win of his career on Oct. 22, 1988, at the now-shuttered Jefferson Downs. Overall, he has had 11,204 starters, who have earned a collective $26,515,591. Bourgeois has won seven training titles at Delta. He also is a multiple title winner at Evangeline Downs. Bourgeois’s most notable year as a trainer came in 2009, when he ranked 10th in wins in North America with 192.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Crown’s Path notched his first stakes victory in the $125,000 Sir Barton on the final Wednesday night card of the Woodbine meet, which ends Sunday.
Crown’s Path, under Gerry Olguin, rallied from fourth in the two path, and then split horses at the sixteenth pole en route to a one-length win over favored J J for Dave. The front-running Strangrthanfiction weakened to finish another length back in third in the seven-horse field of Ontario-sired runners. The final time was 1:44.01.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The comeback victory by Smash in the third race on Sunday should have him on target for the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds on Santa Anita’s opening day Dec. 26, trainer Bob Baffert said.
“That’s what we’re pointing for,” Baffert said after Smash ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.79 to defeat a tenacious Centralinteligence, who also is expected to point to the seven-furlong Malibu after losing to Smash by a half-length.
Smash is owned by Kaleem Shah, whose good sprinter Irrefutable died after the Underwood on Saturday.
NEW ORLEANS - Only 39 horses have been entered for Saturday’s 13th edition of the Claiming Crown, the lowest total in the event’s history. Just five races, another historic low, will comprise this year’s Claiming Crown after a sixth scheduled race, the $75,000 Rapid Transit - which drew only five pre-entrants - failed to attract enough entries to make it onto Saturday’s program.
