In a span of five days last month, Laysh Laysh Laysh went from claimer to stakes winner. Monday, Laysh Laysh Laysh will try to become a graded stakes winner when he faces a full field of sprinters in a seemingly wide-open running of the Grade 2, $150,000 General George Handicap at Laurel Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Evening Jewel’s win in the Sunshine Millions Distaff provided trainer Jim Cassidy with a sense of relief.

The race ended a three-race losing streak, and ended a brief concern that Evening Jewel was not as sharp as her 2010 form, when she won four stakes and was recognized as the California-bred horse of the year.

ARCADIA, Calif. - With luck, Cloneylass would have won her first stakes in the Sweet Life Stakes at Santa Anita last month.

Ridden from off the pace by jockey Corey Nakatani, she was in trouble through the final sixteenth, hampered by a loose horse, and lost by a half-length to pacesetter Bloemer Girl. A chance for revenge arrives in Monday’s $100,000 La Habra Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over the same about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course as the Sweet Life.

NEW ORLEANS – As good as trainer Steve Margolis’s 2009-2010 Fair Grounds meet was – and it was good, 29 percent wins good – the 2010-2011 season in New Orleans is coming up even rosier. After only 69 starters, Margolis is two winners away from the 24 victories he notched all last season. His horses are winning at a 31-percent clip, and bettors surely have noticed that a win bet on every single Margolis horse this Fair Grounds meet would have produced a return-on-investment of $2.20.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Tomcat Jake has been a pleasant surprise for retired dentist turned trainer Ryland Harwood.
Tomcat Jake, a Seattle Shamus homebred, could give Harwood the biggest win of his career Monday when he takes on four rivals in the $35,000 Oregon Thoroughbred Breeders Derby at Portland Meadows.

Tomcat Jake was supplemented to the derby, just as he was to the Bill Wineburg on Dec. 12. he finished second in the Wineburg, splitting Shamundi and Midda’s Gold Touch, two of his rivals in Monday’s one-mile race.

Extremely high winds in the mid-Atlantic region, with gusts exceeding 50 miles per hour, forced officials at Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia and Penn National Race Course near Harrisburg, Pa., to cancel live racing on Saturday.

Parx is scheduled to resume racing at 12:25 p.m. Sunday. Penn National's next live card will be 5 p.m. Monday.
 

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With his more heralded stablemate headed to Maryland for the Grade 2 General George Handicap, Driven by Solar will carry the banner for owner Mike Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher in Monday’s $65,000 Hollie Hughes Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct.

And while Driven by Success is a three-time stakes winner and earner of more than $541,719, Driven by Solar may actually have been the stronger half of the entry.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Jockey Eibar Coa went into surgery at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., to repair and stabilize injuries he suffered in a riding mishap that took place shortly after the field crossed the finish line in Friday’s sixth race at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A two day carryover produced a record $971,971 pool in the popular 50-cent pick-5 on Friday at Gulfstream Park and a resulting payoff of $7,104.20 for those who selected the winning combination of 3-1-8-8-13. Nearly $800,000 of that pool was wagered on Friday alone.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Jockey Eibar Coa fractured the cervical-4 vertebra in his neck in a spill that occurred just past the finish line in Friday’s sixth race at Gulfstream Park, according to his former agent, Matt Muzikar. Coa was scheduled to undergo surgery Friday evening at Memorial East Hospital in Hollywood.

Muzikar said from the hospital that Coa, 38, was conscious and speaking to him just before being prepped for surgery. He said Coa told him “he hasn’t had any movement in his arms or legs yet.”