INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Forever Together, the champion turf female of 2008, will start in the $250,000 Gamely Stakes at Hollywood Park next Saturday, her first race in Southern California since a third in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita last November.
The Grade 1 Gamely, run over 1 1/8 miles on turf, will be a showdown between Forever Together and the outstanding Tuscan Evening, winner of four graded stakes on turf at Santa Anita earlier this year.
ELMONT, N.Y. − Much of the focus going into Wednesday's first-level turf allowance race at Belmont Park centered on New Madrid, who was trying to use the race as a springboard to the Belmont Stakes.
But at the conclusion of the race, most of the talk was about Kindergarden Kid, who made a powerful four-wide rally turning for home to record a three-quarter-length victory in the $53,000 race. The win was the second straight for Kindergarden Kid, a son of Dynaformer owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson's Lael Stable and trained by Barclay Tagg.
FORT ERIE, Ontario − Louis Capi has sent only three runners to post, but he is fourth in the Fort Erie trainer standings. That's because all three of his runners have won.
Small barns with few horses often get overlooked in the trainer standings, but Capi, 60, has taken his share of plaudits this spring. One of his runners, Impressive Cat, returned from a five-month layoff and won his season debut in a maiden race May 10. The other two, Sometime Anytime and Chief No Tell, scored after flopping in their first starts off five-month layoffs.
MIAMI - After being rewarded with four graded stakes placings as well as a respectable performance in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, owner-trainer Barry Rose will try a new dimension with his durable 3-year-old filly Joanie's Catch when he turns her back to five furlongs and puts her on the grass in Sunday's $29,000 allowance feature at Calder.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Randy Meier rode his 33,238th race on Dec. 3 at Hawthorne Race Course. Whether that ride was the last in a long career, Meier still hasn't fully decided. But for now, the only riding in Meier's life comes during trips from the Arlington stables to the racetrack on the back of trainer Monique Cameron's pony.
A pall was cast over Thursday night's trials for the fillies division of the Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity at Lone Star when Gold Belle, one of the most promising 2-year-olds on the grounds, was euthanized after an accident prior to the fourth race.
Superior Storm, who was scratched out of a stakes Saturday at Louisiana Downs, will likely be pointed for the $100,000 Louisiana Showcase Distaff at Evangeline on July 3, said her trainer, Rick Jackson.
Superior Storm recently spiked a temperature, which forced her out of the $100,000 Louisiana Cup Distaff. Jackson said she has been nominated to the Grade 3, $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff on Lone Star Million Day, but will miss that race, too, because the medication used to treat the fever will not have cleared her system by then.
Awesome Gem and El Gato Malo are set for a Texas invasion. Trainer Craig Dollase said Friday from Hollywood Park that the horses are being pointed for separate stakes on the Lone Star Million Day card Monday, May 31.
Awesome Gem is targeting the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, while El Gato Malo is set to make his first start of the year in the $150,000 Dallas Turf Cup. David Flores has the mount on both horses, said Dollase, who trains the pair of graded winners for West Point Thoroughbreds.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Emerald Downs-based trainer Doris Harwood is making her second trip to Hastings on Monday. If it goes as well as her first trip here, she will be getting her picture taken with Knight Raider in the $50,000 Emerald Downs for 3-year-old fillies.
Last year, Harwood shipped Winning Machine and Noosa Beach to Hastings to run in the Grade 3, $275,000 British Columbia Derby, and they took home a large share of the purse by finishing first and third.
"That was pretty nice," Harwood said. "Hopefully we'll have as much luck with Knight Raider."