OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ava K. and Midnight Visit both have won their first two starts impressively and will now test each other when they meet in Friday’s $60,000 Proud Puppy Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.
The Proud Puppy, a mile-and-70-yard race which also drew stakes winner Queen’s Harbor and three others, will be the first race around two turns for Ava K. and Midnight Visit.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A field of six 3-year-olds, led by Eclipse Award winner Uncle Mo, is tentatively scheduled to run in Saturday’s $100,000 Timely Writer, according to the Gulfstream Park racing office.
Along with Uncle Mo, the field for the one-mile Timely Writer is expected to include Madman Diaries, Schoolyard Cat, Gallant Dreams, Rattlesnake Bridge, and Rocking Out. Four of the six horses in the race will be supplemented into the Timely Writer at a cost of $600.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Blind Luck, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2010, will make her next start in the $150,000 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 19, and will not start in Saturday’s $300,000 Santa Margarita Invitational at Santa Anita, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Wednesday
A little more than a decade after he hung out his own shingle, Steve Margolis officially has broken through. The 2010-11 Fair Grounds meet marks the best yet for the 47-year-old New York City native, as he entered Friday action at the New Orleans track with career highs of 27 wins and nearly $840,000 in purse earnings.
“It’s been a heck of a meet, for sure,” said Margolis. “We’ve got more numbers, and the horses have really run for us. We’ll leave out of here happy.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Chilean sensation Belle Watling disappointed her followers in her U.S. debut here last month in the Grade 3 The Very One. As a result, trainer Patrick Biancone has tweaked a few things for her second start by changing the surface, distance, rider, and most important the level of competition for Belle Watling when she attempts to rebound in Friday’s feature, an optional $100,000 claimer for fillies and mares at Gulfstream Park.
Clinton Potts rode two winners for trainer Todd Beattie on Tuesday night’s card at Penn National Race Course to reach 3,000 for his career.
Potts, 39, got the milestone victory aboard Forever Tango ($11.60) in the featured seventh race, an allowance route for filies and mares.
Potts, who began his career riding Quarter Horses and won his first Thoroughbred race at Blue Ribbon Downs in 1990, moved into second place in the Penn National riding standings with his two wins. He now has 18 wins, 10 behind leader Dana Whitney.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Only four new names are in the lineup of 23 separately listed wagering interests in Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, marking quite possibly the fewest changes since Churchill Downs first began offering parimutuel futures in 1999.
Pool 2, which opens its three-day run Friday at noon Eastern, comes three weeks after Pool 1 was offered Feb. 18-20. Pool 2 coincides with the only futures pool being offered this year on the Kentucky Oaks.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Rigoletta was forced to miss the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last fall with a minor physical setback following her win in the Grade 1 Oak Leaf, but she has resurfaced this year as a potential candidate for the Kentucky Oaks. Her first step toward that goal will come on Saturday, when she runs in the Grade 3, $125,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn.
The 1 1/16-mile race is for 3-year-old fillies. It serves as a prep for the Grade 2, $300,000 Fantasy, which has produced the last two winners of the Kentucky Oaks, Rachel Alexandra and Blind Luck.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Woody Allen’s observation that 80 percent of success is just showing up seemingly applies to a lunch-pail horse such as Regal Warrior, who will almost surely run his race against four rivals in Thursday’s $47,000 optional claiming feature for older males at a mile and 70 yards.
“He’s like Pete Rose – he doesn’t hit a lot of home runs, but he usually gets on base,” trainer Mike Trombetta said of the 4-year-old gelding who has run Beyer Speed Figures of 80 or better in 10 of 11 starts, a streak that began with a nose loss in the Federico Tesio Stakes last May.
