Princess Christine ($3) won her fifth straight race Tuesday, taking a $16,000 optional claiming sprint at River Downs by 2 3/4 lengths. It is the seventh time the 5-year-old mare has won this year, placing her in a tie for second in most wins in the country with Head to Toe, like Princess Christine an Ohio-bred. World Gone Wrong is tops with eight victories.
Trainer Joe Woodard attributes her winning ways to two things, and the first is placing her in the right kind of race.
AUBURN, Wash. - Kruger Park, third in the Seattle Handicap in his last start, is one of six horses entered to run Saturday in the $65,000 Ponche Handicap at Calder Race Course in Miami.
Kruger Park was still in his stall at Emerald on Tuesday and was scheduled for a workout Wednesday morning before leaving for Florida, trainer Carlos Moreno said, though nothing was set in stone because Moreno had yet to finalize travel arrangements.
So Grant Forster, how does it feel to train the world's fastest turf miler?
"I guess it feels a little different than it did last week," Forster said while chuckling at the thought.
Mandurah became the new record holder with a 1:31.23 mile on Sunday at Monmouth. Mister Light set the old mark of 1:31.41 on Jan. 3, 2005, at Gulfstream.
The record was as stunning as it was improbable, coming in Mandurah's grass debut. Not bad for a 6-year-old gelding running for a $7,500 tag earlier this year at Oaklawn Park.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The way Soaring Empire worked on June 3 had trainer Cam Gambolati feeling confident about the colt's chances in the Grade 3, $200,000 Pegasus Stakes on June 19 at Monmouth Park. The way the Belmont Stakes unfolded two days later pushed his confidence level even higher.
Soaring Empire was clocked in 59.40 seconds in his June 3 work, the fastest of the 31 works at five furlongs that morning at Monmouth.
Retama Park near San Antonio will run its annual two divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes for 2-year-olds on Sept. 25, after reaching a recent agreement with the Texas Thoroughbred Association, said Bryan Brown, the track's chief executive officer. Lone Star's two juvenile divisions for the Stallion Stakes are set for July 10.
Salty Wave, who ran in the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga back in 2007, set a course record at Lone Star last Saturday. She covered five furlongs on turf in 55.09 seconds when she won an optional $35,000 claimer by 2 1/2 lengths. It was the third straight win for Salty Wave, a $20,000 claim in April whose current win streak has come in turf sprints at Lone Star.
"She's going through a good spell right now," said Karl Broberg, who trains Salty Wave. "If you look at her entire career, she's shown speed and ability and won a stakes earlier on."
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lady Giacamo will be spending part of her summer at either Del Mar or Saratoga, and she can afford it. Undefeated in three starts, Lady Giacamo has emerged as the top 2-year-old filly at Lone Star Park. Her latest win came Saturday, in a division of the $66,090 Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Nick Gonzalez was looking forward to contesting his first Queen's Plate last year with My Bad.
A homebred racing for the Tucci Stable of Carlo and Lou Tucci, My Bad punched his ticket to the Queen's Plate with a sharp allowance score over 1 1/16 miles and had a month to prepare for the $1 million race.
But a Queen's Plate appearance by My Bad was not to be.
There is a new name atop the rider standings this season at Louisiana Downs, Richard Eramia, but his success was hardly instantaneous.
Eramia began riding in his native Uruguay in 1995 before making his American debut at Tampa Bay Downs. A stint at Calder followed before he migrated to the Texas circuit, where he rode for five years.
A relative newcomer to Louisiana, Eramia is in his second season at Louisiana Downs. He said a strong factor in his success this season was wintering at Fair Grounds.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Stakes purses at Hastings took the brunt of the purse cuts announced by the government-appointed Horse Racing Industry Management Committee this week. The cuts will go into effect on Friday. The committee was formed last year to try and revitalize the local horse racing industry and was given the power to distribute purse money to both the Thoroughbred and Standardbred sectors.