Setsuko has returned home and is under consideration for the Belmont, trainer Richard Mandella said this week. Runner-up in the Santa Anita Derby, Setsuko did not draw into the Kentucky Derby field due to insufficient graded stakes earnings, and instead raced April 30 in the Grade 2 American Turf at Churchill. He finished fourth, possibly uncomfortable with the wet turf.
"He's back home and seems in good shape," Mandella said. "I would consider the Belmont."
Grade 3 Sham Stakes winner Alphie's Bet, briefly considered for the Belmont Stakes after winning the Snow Chief for California-bred 3-year-olds April 24 at Hollywood, will not need to ship that far for a race equally ambitious.
Trainer Alexis Barba nominated Alphie's Bet for the Grade 2 Jim Murray Handicap, a 1 1/2-mile turf race May 15 in which the 3-year-old would be facing older horses.
"That distance is right up his alley," Barba said. "I'd like to keep him in California. He's a 3-year-old against older, but does he know that?"
No 3-year-old has won the Murray.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Very little has gone smoothly for I Want Revenge since he won the Wood Memorial more than 13 months ago, so why should his first workout since April 2009 be any different?
I Want Revenge, now in the barn of Richard Dutrow Jr., returned to the work tab Friday, breezing three furlongs in 38.25 seconds on Aqueduct's main track under exercise rider Gustavo Rodriguez. But the work was far from routine.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer John Sadler was not the only one to notice how quickly Cost of Freedom pulled up after crossing the wire Thursday in race 2 at Hollywood Park. Cost of Freedom, who earned a 105 Beyer Figure for his 4 1/2-length comeback win in 1:08.36 for six furlongs, stopped 1 1/2 furlongs past the wire. Sadler asked jockey Tyler Baze, why the quick pull-up?
"That was my question to Tyler, and he said he was saving him for the next one," Sadler said Friday. "As long as it was that, I'm happy. He looked good this morning."
The Assiniboia Downs meeting was a roaring success in 2009, when the move from Sunday afternoon racing to Wednesday night racing helped increase total handle by 38 percent over the previous year.
With some slight adjustments to the schedule, Assiniboia begins this year's 65-day meeting with Sunday's Mother's Day program. A total of 64 horses were entered for the eight-race card.
"Things should be all right, horse-wise," said Ray Miller, Assiniboia's racing secretary. "We still have a lot of horses coming in every day."
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Gold Coyote, who won nine stakes while establishing himself as one of the best sprinters in the Mid-South, has been retired, said Ken Carson, general manager of the Valor Farm operation of the horse's owner, Clarence Scharbauer.
"He's turned out, just kind of pensioned now," Carson said Friday from Valor, which is about an hour north of Dallas.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - When Terry Jordan ships a horse across the country to run in a stakes race, you'd better pay attention. In the last five years, Jordan has won with 45 percent of his stakes invaders. He will try to add to that when he runs Dancing Allstar in the $50,000 Brighouse Belles at Hastings on Sunday.
Dancing Allstar is coming off a last-place finish in the Grade 3 Whimsical at Woodbine on April 18, when she returned from an eight-month layoff. She is 0 for 4 since she captured the Whimsical in 2009.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - The apprehension and uncertainty that hung over Fort Erie Racetrack's future for the last few years has finally been put to and end, and an enthusiastic crowd turned out last Saturday for opening day of the track's 113th season.
A three-year leasing agreement between Nordic Gaming and the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium is now in place, and the new management team, led by chief executive officer Jim Thibert, welcomed the opening-day patrons and thanked them for their support.
Ice Bear breezed seven furlongs in 1:26 under jockey Chantal Sutherland and is slated to make his first start of the year in the Eclipse, rather than the Vigil.
"He's not a sprinter, and that race came up pretty tough," said trainer Mac Benson. "He's a decent work horse, so why run him when you don't have to?"
A 6-year-old homebred gelding who races for George Strawbridge's Augustin Stable, Ice Bear won last year's Eclipse in his second start of the season.
Ave gets ready for Gallorette
Milwaukee Appeal, Canada's champion 3-year-old filly last year, breezed four furlongs in 47.60 under exercise rider Michelle Rainford.
"She wasn't working in company but there was another horse about eight lengths in front of her, and she just kind of blew by her," said trainer Scott Fairlie.
Milwaukee Appeal is nominated to next Saturday's Shuvee at Belmont and to Sunday's Hendrie here at Wooodbine, and Fairlie said she will probably run in the Hendrie.