INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The first few months of 2011 did not go to expectation for Blind Luck, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2010.
There were more losses – three – than wins – one. Along the way, she lost her status as division leader to Havre de Grace, a finalist for the Eclipse Award for 3-year-old filly of 2010. But over the next five weeks, Blind Luck has a chance to regain the top spot.
MIAMI – W.D. North could have done what most of his colleagues in Ocala, Fla., usually do when preparing a 2-year-old to race at Calder: work them exclusively on one of the training centers or farms in town and not ship to the track until the day of the race.
Instead, North opted to load his promising 2-year-old U.S. Citizen on his trailer last Friday and made the long drive down to Calder, where he worked the speedy youngster three furlongs from the gate in 35 seconds the next morning with jockey Juan Leyva aboard.
Northern California’s summer fair circuit gets under way Thursday when the San Joaquin Fair at Stockton begins the season with a four-day meet.
And it’s going to be hard for racing fans to pass up the offer the fair is giving them – free admission to the fair itself and the track.
“This year we need to do something different,” said the San Joaquin Fair’s interim CEO, Janet Covello. “We need to rebuild our base.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When trainer Mike Hushion saw Roman Treasure dueling through an opening quarter mile in 21.42 seconds in a recent first-level allowance race at Parx Racing, he was horrified.
“I looked like the connections of Animal Kingdom after the first sixteenth of a mile of the Belmont,” said Hushion, referring to the despair those connections felt after watching Animal Kingdom clip heels with another horse early in that race.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The lone non-claiming race on Thursday’s Woodbine card is a wide-open 1 1/16-mile maiden special, which is worth just $37,000. A case can be made for many of the nine entrants, and Big Breeches has as good a chance as any.
When he debuted in a $25,000 route in May of last year, Big Breeches got away slowly before closing strongly for second. He ran another solid race when returning from a one-year layoff May 15, during which he awaited room on the turn before rallying for second in a seven-furlong sprint for $40,000 maidens.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There is certainly no shortage of prospects for the Queen’s Plate, with as many as 17 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds eyeing the $1 million showpiece as of Tuesday morning.
The expected presence of major players Check Your Soul, Queen’splatekitten, Bowman’s Causeway, and possibly Inglorious appears to have done little to dampen the enthusiasm of others eager to be part of the excitement surrounding the 1 1/4-mile showpiece for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds at Woodbine.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There doesn't seem to be much room for error atop the national handicap ranks this year. Mission Impazible went from a division leader to just one of the gang when six opponents finished ahead of him in the Alysheba Stakes last month at Churchill Downs.
Six weeks after he finished seventh, beaten less than four lengths by victorious First Dude in the May 7 Alysheba, Mission Impazible will try to recapture some of his status when part of a sizable field Saturday in the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill.
ELMONT, N.Y. – To listen to both men speak, it was almost harder to tell who was happier about Mission Approved’s upset victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap – his current trainer, Naipaul Chatterpaul, or his former trainer, Gary Contessa.
Chatterpaul claimed the horse from Contessa on June 11, 2010, for $35,000. After nearly pulling off a stunning upset in the Grade 1 Man o’ War a month later, Mission Approved was away for 11 months before upsettting Saturday’s Manhattan at 21-1, beating, among others, two-time turf champion Gio Ponti.
Assiniboia Downs will present a stakes doubleheader on Wednesday, and the meeting then goes into a two-week hiatus, resuming on June 29.
Management elected to take the break this year because of concerns over traffic caused by a massive ongoing construction project combined with the onset of the annual Red River Exhibition.
The racetrack will remain open for simulcast and video-lottery terminal players
