ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – She will be making her first start in a new barn, but if Peyote Patty is the same horse this year as in 2010, she can win the featured sixth race on Sunday at Arlington.
Peyote Patty is one of six horses in the main body of a third-level allowance also open to $80,000 claimers. The race is carded for one mile on turf, with two more horses entered to run only on the main track.
MIAMI – Ten months ago, trainer Marty Wolfson sent out the first four finishers in Calder’s Ema Bovary Stakes. On Sunday, he’ll attempt to repeat the relatively unique feat when sending out four of the seven starters in the 5 1/2-furlong overnight stakes for fillies and mares that serves as a prep for the $75,000 U Can Do It Handicap on the June 11 Summit Preview card.
Flat Out, a stakes winner who won a $40,000 optional claiming allowance route at Fair Grounds in his last start Dec. 5, has been training forwardly at Churchill Downs and is being considered for a start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap on May 30, said his trainer, Charles “Scooter” Dickey.
“He’s doing real good, and we’re looking for a race for him,” Dickey said Friday. “We nominated him to the Met Mile and the Lone Star Handicap, and we’re going to look the nominations over.”
The Grade 1, $500,000 Metropolitan Handicap is also May 30, at Belmont Park.
Star Guitar has been training “along steadily” at his Louisiana Downs base, biding his time as he awaits his two major objectives this summer. The first comes July 2. Trainer Al Stall Jr. said Star Guitar is targeting the $100,000 Louisiana Showcase Classic at Evangeline Downs. From there, Star Guitar could run in the $125,000 Evangeline Mile on Aug. 13.
“We’re pointing for the two upcoming races at Evangeline Downs,” Stall said Friday.
AUBURN, Wash. – Noosa Beach has been brilliant for a long time now, finishing first in seven of eight starts since the 2010 Emerald Downs meeting began last April. A convincing winner in his 2011 debut a month ago, he’ll carry a four-race win streak into Sunday’s $50,000 Governor’s Handicap, the first in a series of stakes tests for older horses leading to the Grade 3 Longacres Mile.
DRF's national handicapper Mike Watchmaker is at Pimlico for today's Black-Eyed Susan card and Saturday's Preakness. Watch for video updates on DRF.com in the Preakness section and find more from Watchmaker on his handicapping blog.
Monmouth Park has received permission from state regulators to run 71 live racing days this year, officials said on Friday, as horsemen and the track’s leaseholder continue to negotiate over a long-term live-racing agreement.
Under the schedule, Monmouth will run Friday through Sunday and on holidays until after Labor Day, when the track will go to a Saturday and Sunday schedule. The track will close on Nov. 6 after three consecutive days of racing coinciding with Breeders’ Cup weekend.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Before he starts Jax El in the $70,000 Fran’s Valentine Stakes on Sunday at Hollywood Park, trainer Barry Abrams will give jockey Alonso Quinonez the same instructions he gave two weeks earlier.
“Don’t try to rate her,” Abrams said. “I don’t care how fast she goes. If she goes 1:07 and finishes last, it will be my fault.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – St. Liams Halo will try to win his first stakes race when he runs in the $50,000 John Longden 6000 at Hastings on Monday.
With the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby in mind, St. Liams Halo was purchased privately last year by Glen Todd and Patrick Kinsella. He never made it to the race, however, and his win over Heavenly Chorus in a $35,000 optional claimer at Hastings on April 24 was his first start since he won a one-mile maiden special weight on the Arlington Park turf course last June.
