It was a strange week. The Factor, the fastest 3-year-old in the West, is not expected to contest the Santa Anita Derby. Clubhouse Ride, a durable 11-start "veteran," is sidelined with an injury.
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DRF Past Performances
There will be a $203,977 pick six carryover for Friday's program at Oaklawn Park after the wager went unhit for the 10th consecutive card. The sequence runs from races 3-8.
The carryover is the largest at Oaklawn since Feb. 6, 2006, according to Bobby Geiger, the track's director of gaming and wagering. For that program, he said it was $225,076.
Twelve-year-old Tonight Rainbow will aim for his sixth Grasmick Stakes victory when a field of nine older horses go a half-mile in the Saturday feature at Fonner Park.
Owned and trained by Boyd Caster, Tonight Rainbow won his first Grasmick in 2004, marking the end of a career for the legendary Leaping Plum. The then-13-year-old Leaping Plum was retired following the race after winning the Grasmick eight times, including a remarkable string of seven straight from 1995 to 2001.
Truly Lucky was fourth to a Breeders' Cup champion in her last start, which should make her a top contender Saturday night in the $50,000 Sam Houston Distaff. But her trainer, Karl Broberg, has some concerns about her getting the race's 1 1/16-mile distance, as she has been sprinting of late.
"She's done it before, so we're rolling the dice," said Broberg, who will also saddle the coupled Jill Marie.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Woo Pig Sooie will get a lot of play at Oaklawn Park on Saturday in the $50,000 Rainbow. Named for the battle cry of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, he was the favorite heading into his first start earlier this month. But he was scratched before he ever ran, and will end up making his career debut in the Rainbow, which is for 3-year-olds bred in Arkansas.
“He ended up having a negative reaction to Lasix,” said Ron Moquett, who trains Woo Pig Sooie. “It made him cramp up. He had an adverse reaction to the medication.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – When it comes to winning the Kentucky Derby, suddenly less has become more. Three of the last four winners, Street Sense in 2007, Big Brown in 2008, and Super Saver last year came into the Derby with only two preps as 3-year-olds under their belts. And if all goes according to plan, the two current favorites for the 2011 Derby, Uncle Mo and To Honor and Serve, will take the same route with only two starts on their itineraries between now and May 7.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park announced Thursday that it intends to apply for year-round racing, beginning July 1 and continuing through June 30, 2012.
The decision would put Gulfstream and nearby Calder Racecourse in competition year round and is the latest shot in a battle between Churchill Downs Inc., which owns Calder, and MI Developments, owner of Gulfstream. The feud escalated earlier this week when Calder put restrictions on its horsemen, essentially preventing them from running at Gulfstream during the remaining eight weeks of the current meeting.
The race Boys At Tosconova ran in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile would’ve been good enough for first money many years, but the Rick Dutrow-trained Boys At Tosconova ran into a monster from the Todd Pletcher barn, Uncle Mo. That same dynamic might be at work in the Hutcheson Stakes on Saturday, where the flashy Dutrow maiden winner Flashpoint goes against the Pletcher-trained Travelin Man, among the sharpest debut winners of the Gulfstream meet.
Stretching out to a route for the first time, Angelica Zapata gets tested for stamina in Saturday’s one-mile $50,000 Valdale Stakes over the Polytrack at Turfway.
Nor does the test end there. She will also have to deal with eight rivals, including two promising Southern shippers, New Orleans invader Maegans Princesses and south Florida shipper Harlan’s Ruby.
Both appear formidable, with Maegans Princesses making her first start since running eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and Harlan’s Ruby coming off a narrow maiden victory at Fair Grounds Jan. 28.