LOUISVILLE, KY. - Watching the contenders train in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby is a little like playing the lottery, since any morning could be the one when you hit the jackpot and see a horse whose final Derby workout sets him (or, as would have been in the case last year with Rachel Alexandra, had she run in the Derby rather than the Oaks) apart from all the others.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Richard Migliore's riding career could be in jeopardy after it was discovered last week that he refractured the vertebrae in his neck. Migliore will undergo surgery at a Manhattan hospital next week.
It is believed Migliore suffered the fracture when he was thrown from a horse Jan. 23 at Aqueduct, but the injury was not diagnosed until Migliore met with a neurologist in Manhattan last Monday. Migliore first suffered a broken neck in a spill at Belmont Park in 1988.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Spring is in the air at Hollywood Park. But are there enough horses on the ground?
Hollywood opens Wednesday for a three-month meet on the main track handicappers consider the most consistent and fair synthetic surface in Southern California. Hollywood also marks the launch point for a fresh crop of 2-year-olds ready to begin their careers.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The racing office could be scrambling up until entry time Wednesday to fill Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct.
As of Monday, the only confirmed starters for the Withers were Swale Stakes one-two finishers D' Funnybone and Ibboyee. The racing office was hoping to get trainer Gary Contessa to run the speedy New York-bred Castaneda, who has won three straight races at six furlongs including the Fred "Cappy" Capossela Stakes. The Withers is a one-turn mile.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Ron Ellis's stable starts the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting in its best form of the year.
On Saturday at Santa Anita, Ellis won three races, including the Grade 3 San Simeon Handicap on the hillside turf course with Mr Gruff. At Hollywood Park, Mr Gruff will be pointed to the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf on May 31, Ellis said.
Owned by Gary Broad, Mr Gruff has never run beyond about 6 1/2 furlongs on turf, but Ellis is not overly concerned.
"His mother won over 1 1/16 miles," he said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Through Sunday, Rafael Bejarano was the nation's leading rider in purse earnings this year, with $4,247,968.
He was a comfortable winner of the riding title at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that ended Sunday, recording 94 wins, 21 more than runner-up Joel Rosario. To reach that title, he won stakes aboard such prominent horses as Blind Luck, Bourbon Bay, and Tuscan Evening.
"I had a really good meeting," he said.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Trainer Derek Ryan and Musket Man will be heading up the road to Louisville for the second straight spring to race on the first Saturday in May. Last year Musket Man finished third in the Kentucky Derby. This year he will be racing on the Derby Day program in the Grade 2, $250,000 Churchill Downs Handicap going seven furlongs.
Trainer Steve Specht will have to look south for Antares World's next start, with her options including the Grade 3 Railbird at seven furlongs on May 9 or the Grade 2 Honeymoon at 1 1/8 miles on the turf May 31. Both races are at Hollywood Park.
Antares World, who was odds-on, always looked a winner in Saturday's Golden Poppy here, defeating Bleach Blonde by three lengths in the one-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies.
Leading apprentice rider Alex Gonzalez suffered a mild concussion and bruised left knee when his mount in the 10th race on Sunday, Dianne Do, crashed through the inner rail just after turning into the backstretch. Dianne Do was leading the one-mile turf race at the time. Precautionary X-rays proved negative, and Gonzalez hoped to return to riding Wednesday.
Dianne Do frolicked in the infield, even taking a dip in one of the infield pools before she was caught. She was apparently unscathed by the misadventure.
