ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Mike Stidham's weekend followed a trend his barn has been following for weeks, with stakes success overflowing, but far more meager returns in overnight races.
It's a trend any trainer would trade for.
From Friday through Monday, Stidham went 0-2-0 with four overnight stakes starters, He as 3-1-1 with stakes horses during the same period. Since May 1, Stidham has won seven overnight races, while putting together a 6-2-3 record with 13 stakes starters.
Brickyard Fast turned in one of the best performances by a 2-year-old so far this year when he rolled to a 10-length win in a maiden special weight last weekend at Lone Star Park. Next month, he will test stakes competition. Trainer Joe Petalino said Tuesday that Brickyard Fast is being pointed for the $50,000 Minstrel at Louisiana Downs on July 3.
With Thursday's card limited to maiden and claiming races, the most remarkable contest on the day is the one for leading trainer.
As the week began on Wednesday, the erstwhile jockey Rudy Rodriguez was just one win behind Gary Contessa and Todd Pletcher for the top spot. Both of Rodriguez's runners Thursday are favored on the morning line -- Sorority Sister is 8-5 in the third race, and Feldberg is 6-5 in the sixth -- so it's conceivable he could be on top at the end of the day.
ALTOONA, Iowa - The Iowa Festival of Racing at Prairie Meadows has drawn strong fields for its six stakes, which will take place Friday and Saturday nights. Opening night of the festival will feature the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap, the $100,000 Iowa Distaff, and the $100,000 Saylorville. The Festival concludes Saturday with three graded stakes: the Grade 2 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker, the Grade 3 Iowa Derby, and the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Reade Baker is looking forward to seeing Biofuel compete against some of the best in her division when she goes postward in Saturday's Mother Goose at Belmont Park.
The Mother Goose, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies, offers Grade 1 status and a purse of $250,000.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The first career victory for Westshore came on grass at Gulfstream Park, so trainer Jimmy Baker kept running the colt in grass races. But after two so-so efforts over the Churchill Downs turf, it's back to the dirt for Westshore.
"He just kept kind of bobbling over it here," said Baker. "So I thought maybe we'd try something a little different with him."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Frequently one given to hyperbole, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas had a ready quote as soon as he dismounted from his pony upon returning to his Churchill Downs barn after he watched Mine That Bird go through his latest workout Tuesday morning.
"When they started this 300 years ago, this is what they had in mind," Lukas said with a grin.
Mine That Bird, the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner, is getting very close to his first start as a 4-year-old, and Lukas can barely contain his enthusiasm.
"I couldn't be any happier with him," he said.
AUBURN, Wash. - Emerald Downs lost three of its prominent players last week. Seth Martinez and Robert Burney, both ranked in the top 10 in the jockey standings, packed up and left for other states, and Peaceful Reign, expected to be one of the favorites in the Budweiser Handicap last Sunday, will run Friday in the Iowa Sprint Championship at Prairie Meadows.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The first stop in the morning is the one he covets the most.
At 4:45 a.m. Ben Cecil has the neonatal unit at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, Calif., largely to himself, a chance for the 41-year-old trainer to spend 30 quiet minutes with his 5-week-old son before heading to the racing stable to oversee morning training.
"It's just me and him and it's a nice time," he said. "It puts my mind at ease, too."
