GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Midwest Thoroughbreds and trainer Cody Autrey claimed about 30 horses during the Fair Grounds meet, and on Sunday one of those acquisitions looks like a solid choice in the featured fifth race at Lone Star Park.
Cat Bells will be returning to the Texas-bred ranks for the first time since 2009 in a first-level allowance for fillies and mares at a mile. It will be her first start for Midwest and Autrey after being claimed for $17,500 on March 20.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Nine months after being sidelined by facial injuries sustained in a freak pre-race accident at Del Mar, jockey Tyler Baze rode the 1,775th winner of his award-winning career in Thursday’s sixth race at Hollywood Park.
Guiding Joyful Success to an easy 3 1/4-victory in a $16,000 claimer for sprinters, Baze celebrated with a few right-handed fist pumps. A few minutes later, after leaving the winner’s circle, Baze summed up his thoughts surrounding his comeback.
“Mission accomplished,” Baze said. “I got it done. Now there is no monkey on my back.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When trainer Kiaran McLaughlin puts Soldat on the plane that will take his Kentucky Derby prospect to Louisville on Saturday, he will do so with the confidence that his horse couldn’t be doing any better coming into the biggest race of his young career.
KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail
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INGLEWOOD, Calif. – When the filly Separate Forest dropped into a claiming race for the first time Jan. 14, trainer Doug O’Neill believed that despite her declining form, the potential reward outweighed the risk.
“We thought she was a filly that was definitely worth what she was in for,” O’Neill said, referring to the $25,000 tag. “And if we got lucky at all, we thought she might be worth a little bit more.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – In her third and final start as a 2-year-old, Overvalued finished third as the heavy favorite in the 1 1/16-mile Fantasy Stakes. Despite the loss, it was an impressive performance for the Tracy McCarthy-trained Overvalued. She dueled through extremely fast early fractions and just when you thought she would start backing out of the race, Overvalued opened up on the field going around the stretch turn. Not surprisingly, she couldn’t keep up the pace and tired in the stretch.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Victory With Class and Pigtails should appreciate what figures to be a lively pace in the $50,000 Boulevard Casino for 3-year-old fillies at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint drew seven horses and goes as race 7.
Victory With Class has never been worse than second in six career starts and is coming off of a solid effort behind Nuj Nuj Wink Wink, who had things her own way inn optional $75,000 claiming race April 17. The pace scenario will be completely different with the speedy Overvalued in the field.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Something Extra will shed the blinkers for the stretch-out to 1 1/16 miles Sunday at Woodbine in the $100,000 Wando Stakes.
Something Extra, owned by trainer Gail Cox and John Menary, graduated second-time out last July, and went on to finish second in an allowance and the seven-furlong Swynford Stakes.
In his first venture around two turns, Something Extra battled for the lead before fading in the stretch in the Grade 3 Grey Stakes in October. He completed his 2-year-old campaign by dead-heating for fourth in an allowance route Nov. 5.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The already deep Woodbine jockey colony has gained an interesting new member in David Moran, who arrived from Ireland on Wednesday evening.
Moran can hardly be called a stranger to Woodbine, however, as the 28-year-old Irishman has ridden here six times, all in stakes races, for trainer Carolyn Costigan.
And those overseas trips have yielded wins with Roan Inish in the $250,000 Princess Elizabeth and $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, plus a third-place finish in the $1 million Queen’s Plate.
AUBURN, Wash. – With the start of the 2011 stakes schedule still two weeks away, a handful of horses with stakes credentials will make their season debuts in allowance races Sunday at Emerald Downs.
In the eighth race, a $50,000 optional claimer for older horses at 5 1/2 furlongs, 2009 stakes winners Hollywood Harbor and Peaceful Reign are scheduled to return from lengthy layoffs.
Hollywood Harbor, Emerald’s champion 2-year-old in 2009, hasn’t raced since April 2010, when he was ninth of 10 in the Harry Henson Stakes on the turf at Hollywood Park.
