WHO'S HOT
Elvis Trujillo
Elvis was certainly in the house last week, winning nine races to put himself within striking distance of leading rider Paco Lopez going into the final seven days of the meet. Included in that streak were hat tricks on Thursday and Sunday's programs. Eight of Trujillo's nine wins from April 7-11 came for different trainers, the majority Northern-based outfits such as Tom Albertrani, Chad Brown, and Tim Hills as well as Peter Walder, for whom he posted a pair of victories in that period.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Churchill Downs is making a slight alteration to its morning training protocol to give preference to prospects for the 136th Kentucky Derby and Oaks while also hoping to utilize their new permanent lighting system during pre-dawn hours.
WHO'S HOT
Rudy Rodriguez
Mentioned last week after Aegean Breeze ($44.80) gave him his first win as a trainer, R-Rod is right back after winning three more races last week - all with horses he was saddling for the first time.
Chromospere ($3), claimed from his 4-year-old bow March 11, switched back to the grass to handle $16,000 maidens easily on April 8.
Things couldn't be brighter at Indiana Downs this season. Purses are up, there are four more open stakes races, and new trainers are coming in from all over. That's quite the opposite of many tracks in the Midwest these days.
Purses will be up at least 20 percent said the track's racing secretary, Butch Cook.
"Our maiden special weight races went from $22,000 to $32,000, our allowance races went from a top of of $28,000 to $46,000."
The lives and racing careers of Headturner and Jumpn Beduino will forever be linked.
First, the 3-year-old Quarter Horse half-siblings are out of the same dam, Imjumpn. Furthermore, they seem to peak on the racetrack at the same time. Jumpn Beduino and Headturner were first and second in the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Futurity at Los Alamitos last October. Last weekend, they both won major derbies.
Justwhistledixie has yet to return to the graded stakes-winning form she displayed as a 3-year-old. She will get another chance when she runs in Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 Distaff Handicap here at seven furlongs. Six were entered in the Distaff, though two of those - Hour Glass and Strut the Canary - were cross-entered in Saturday night's $250,000 Sugar Maple Stakes at Charles Town.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - If Rudy Rodriguez knew he was going to do this well this soon as a trainer, perhaps he would have quit riding years ago.
Rodriguez has gone 4 for 4 since Aqueduct's main track opened and is 4 for 10 since starting his first horse as a trainer five weeks ago. Rodriguez, 37, retired from riding after an 18-year career in which he won 221 races, including the Grade 1 Suburban in 2008.
CINCINNATI - River Downs will begin its 86th season Friday under a cloud of uncertainty.
Management asked for and received 104 racing days last fall from the Ohio Racing Commission. At that time, it looked as if Gov. Ted Strickland would sign an executive order to have slot machines installed at Ohio's racetracks to offset the state's budget deficit. That plan has fallen through.
River Downs has since asked the Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association to agree to reduce the number of days. The HBPA board of directors have voted down two such requests.
