FLORENCE, Ky. – Springtime, and the dreaming is easy. Horsemen have flocked to Turfway Park with the notion that if you can just sneak one in here Saturday by winning the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes, anything could happen six weeks later in the Kentucky Derby.
“One day, we’re going to come back there and win the Derby, and I’m going to raise that trophy over my head like [Bob] Baffert does,” said trainer Doug O’Neill, laughing, but perhaps only half-kidding.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With three dominant stakes victories at Aqueduct this winter, Quiet Giant has certainly earned a shot at winning a graded event. But with limited opportunities at this time of the year, trainer Todd Pletcher has opted for one more inner track race before sending Quiet Giant out against stiffer competition.
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ARCADIA, Calif. – The racing program at Santa Anita has hit a quiet patch leading to the Santa Anita Derby on April 9, due partly to an uncharacteristically wet spring that has limited turf racing.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Classy Zip is undefeated in four career outings but faces several new challenges Saturday when she tops a field of 12 3-year-old fillies in a $30,000 overnight handicap at Tampa Bay Downs.
Classy Zip won her first three races over Polytrack in sprints at Woodbine against high-priced claiming sprinters. She returned from a two-month layoff at Laurel to rally from just off the pace going six furlongs over a sloppy main track and win by three-quarters of a length.
A new midweek schedule and twilight racing on Saturdays are the two of the biggest changes on tap for the 2011 racing season at Colonial Downs.
The track in New Kent, Va., announced Wednesday that it will hold a 33-day meet from June 8 to July 31.
Instead of racing on Mondays and Tuesdays as part of a five-day week, as was customary in the past, Colonial will run four days a week on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.
No Advantage and Alma d’Oro, both of whom turned in impressive performances to win significant stakes at Laurel Park over Presidents’ Day weekend, return to Maryland to meet for the first time in Saturday’s $75,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial Stakes.
The Penn National-based No Advantage scored the second graded stakes victory of his 28-race career last month when he got up by a neck to upset the Grade 2 General George Handicap at 10-1. Penn National rider Manual Chaves retains the mount on No Advantage, who has finished in the money in 18 of 28 career starts.
PHOENIX – It took a couple raiders from out of town and a sloppy track to spoil Point Attended’s perfect 5-for-5 record at Turf Paradise. He doesn’t figure to be saddled with either issue as he looks to get back on track in Saturday’s $25,000 Coyote Handicap. The 6 1/2-furlong event drew a field of nine, including most of the top local sprinters.
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NEW ORLEANS – Florida was not very hospitable to Battle of Hastings this winter. Seeking a change of fortune, his trainer, Greg Fox, has brought Battle of Hastings here to Fair Grounds, hoping that a new turf course and a switch in riders will bring out the best from Battle of Hastings on Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap.
The new connections of the millionaire Researcher will find out this weekend whether their plan to bring the 7-year-old gelding back to the races after an 11-month absence with an eye toward taking the $1 million Charles Town Classic for a third time is a realistic goal.
Researcher, who has not run since winning the 2010 Classic, will tune up for a possible start in this year’s Classic on April 16 when he faces five other older horses in a 1 1/8-mile no-conditions allowance race at Charles Town on Saturday night.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Deacon Speakin’ ($29.60) scored his first stakes victory, pulling clear in the stretch Wednesday to win the $53,000 Portland Meadows Mile.
The 5-year-old gelding stalked Ladner Lad and Elusive Schemes to the quarter pole in his Portland Meadows debut. Jockey Juan Gutierrez angled him out for room at the quarter pole and opened a 1 1/2-length lead in the lane before pulling away to win by 7 3/4 lengths over Ladner Lad in 1:36.70.
