Your browser does not support iframes
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Accepting a challenge seems appropriate for a race called the Doubledogdare Stakes. Facing graded company is seldom easy, especially when returning from an extended layoff, and that’s just what a filly named Check the Label will be doing Friday when she runs in the Grade 3, $100,000 Doubledogdare at Keeneland.
AUBURN, Wash.– Following a prosperous opening weekend in which betting handle was up 17.9 percent from the corresponding period in 2010, Emerald Downs begins its second week of racing Friday at 6 p.m. Pacific.
Featured on the eight-race card is a $25,000 claimer for 3-year-olds. Five horses were entered in the 5 1/2-furlong dash, with Tactician, a winner in his only 2010 start, and Touch the Sun likely to attract the lion’s share of the wagering.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. –There appears to be depth at the top end of the New York-bred handicap division this year. Obviously, Haynesfield remains the measuring stick, based on his victory over Blame in last fall’s Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Then there’s Inherit the Gold, who won five straight races, including the Grade 3 Excelsior, and Icabad Crane, a winner of two New York-bred stakes over the inner track.
AUBURN, Wash. – Jockey Ricky Frazier, sidelined since October after suffering severe injuries in a head-to-head collision with a horse, is months away from a return to the saddle and could miss the entire Emerald Downs meeting.
Frazier, 46, said he has yet to gain clearance from doctors to resume anything other than light workouts, a surprising turn of events following news last week that he was making progress toward a May 1 return. The Emerald meeting opened last Friday and runs through Sept. 25.
ALTOONA, Iowa – Prairie Meadows commences its 22nd year of Thoroughbred racing on Friday night and, although spring weather is yet to arrive in central Iowa, the allotted stalls are rapidly filling and there is increasing activity during morning training hours.
Racing secretary Dan Doocy reports “the horse population is good. Based on stall allotment of over 1,200, we technically could end up over full.” It is a possibility Doocy does not mind having as it “should lead to increased field sizes and we’re excited to get started.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – With 2 wins in 4 starts, Makoma will be favored in Friday’s third race at Hollywood Park, a second-level optional $62,500 claimer over 1 1/16 miles.
It is the third of eight races on a program that begins at 7:05 p.m. Pacific, and it is the evening aspect of that scenario that concerns trainer John Shirreffs.
“She should do well if she doesn’t have Friday night-itis,” Shirreffs said.
Shirreffs is unsure how Makoma will react to racing and being saddled in the evening.
OPELOUSAS, La. – For the second time in four years, Mark Guidry finds himself at a career crossroads. In the fall of 2007, the native of Lafayette, La., hung up his tack for the final time as a jockey. In his remarkable 33-year riding career, Guidry racked up 5,043 victories and numerous riding titles while dominating the Chicago circuit. He also received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 2006.
“It was just time,” Guidry said of his retirement. “It was time to move on to the next step.”
Chris Block’s next big coup on this circuit could well be the Alysheba Stakes on the May 6 Kentucky Oaks undercard. Block is pointing his handicap star, Giant Oak, to the Grade 3, $300,000 race. Giant Oak is now stabled at Churchill after wintering at Gulfstream Park, where he won the Grade 1 Donn Handicap in his first start after being awarded victory by disqualification in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap last fall at Churchill.
