WHO'S HOT
Kent Desormeaux was having a subpar meet and spent most of the winter on the south side of the top-10 list until he posted seven victories during Florida Derby week, highlighted by Unrivaled Belle's popular victory in the Grade 3 Rampart. Desormeaux combined with trainer Bill Mott for four of those seven wins.
WHO'S HOT
Shaun Bridgmohan
Bridgmohan enters the final three days of the Fair Grounds meet with a realistic chance to capture his first Fair Grounds riding title, though indefatigable James Graham is nipping at Bridgmohan's heels, trailing 71 wins to 68 entering Friday's action. Graham has gotten 171 more Fair Grounds mounts than Bridgmohan.
You say, "Well, yeah. Bridgmohan rides almost all of Steve Asmussen's Fair Grounds starters. He should be leading rider."
I say, "Umm - you have a point."
WHO'S HOT: TURF RUNNERS
Neither the female nor male turf division is particularly deep this season in Southern California, but that does not detract from the dominance of two good local winners who affirmed their top ranking with Grade 2 wins March 20 and 21.
WHO'S HOT
John Morrison
It had been a relatively quiet winter for Morrison until last week, when he saddled the winner of race 6 on back-to-back days:
Lionish ($40.80) stretched out from six furlongs to a mile and 70 yards and added Lasix for her second career start, and she ran down 2-5 shot Divine Majesty in the final furlong of a New York-bred maiden claimer.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jeremy Noseda is based in Newmarket and has a horse running in Saturday's $2 million Godolphin Mile in Dubai. But his primary focus Thursday morning was at Belmont Park, where his top 3-year-old, Awesome Act, is preparing for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 3 as a prelude to what could be a start in the May 1 Kentucky Derby.
"This is my priority," Noseda said. "This is a huge opportunity. Only time will tell me if we're good enough."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It doesn't happen too often during the course of the winter, but the pick six is starting to get interesting at Gulfstream Park.
There will be a carryover of $60,656 heading into Thursday's 10-race program, with four of the six races that make up the pick six sequence carded on the turf.
NEW ORLEANS - Shezacrazygirl has won a pair of Louisiana-bred stakes in her four-race career and would be the favorite in the $60,000 Crescent City Oaks for statebreds on Friday, but she is also entered the same day in the Fair Grounds Oaks, and is more likely to go in that far more difficult spot, according to Al Stall Jr., who trains Shezacrazygirl for the Red Oak Stable of John Brunetti.
NEW ORLEANS - Mister Marti Gras, a longshot in the Grade 2, $750,000 Louisiana Derby on Saturday, was not named for trainer Neil Pessin, but he should have been. Pessin, with his unwavering good humor and constant smile, is the go-to guy for all things New Orleans, especially restaurants, where he admittedly has done plenty of research.
Pessin is based here during the winter, and in Kentucky in the summer. While at Fair Grounds, he trains his own horses, plus a handful who are sent south for the meet by Chicago-based trainer Chris Block.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Never On Sunday, who finished third and was subsequently placed second making his U.S. debut in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf, should be favored against a full field of turf specialists in Saturday's $150,000 Pan American Handicap. The 1 1/2-mile Pan Am is the final graded stakes on the turf for males during the 2010 meet. Fillies and mares will get their chance the following week under similar conditions in the $150,000 Orchid.