ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Hank Gensler and Mike Lightner, both of whom worked as assistant trainers for U.S.-based outfits last year, are back here this year to train on their own accounts.
Gensler, a 41-year-old native of Dallas, Texas, came to Woodbine in the summer of 2008 as an assistant to Steve Asmussen and continued in that role through last year's meeting.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Not every trainer handles adversity in the same manner. Some who are often quite gracious in victory can be equally as difficult to deal with following a defeat.
They all should take a lesson from Mary Hartmann.
Win or lose, first or last, sometimes it's hard to tell with the classy Hartmann.
John Sadler finally caught "The Hurt Locker" on video not long ago and took it very much to heart. Not the parts about disarming IEDs in a hostile Iraqi landscape or holding a bead on a distant sniper for hours on end beneath a withering desert sun. The job of a Thoroughbred trainer can be challenging, but it's rarely lethal.
No, what hit home with Sadler was a quiet scene with the protagonist soldier back home stateside, submitting to the mundane task of grocery shopping while feeling utterly lost and completely out of place.
WORKOUT OF THE WEEK
Just Jenda tuned up for a possible start in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom with a flashy five-furlong move Monday morning at Oaklawn. She went the distance in 58.80 seconds, with clockers catching her galloping out six furlongs in 1:12. If she goes in the Apple Blossom, a 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares, she is expected to meet undefeated champion Zenyatta.
Average daily handle on Fair Grounds races fell nearly 20 percent from the previous racing season during the track's 2009-2010 race meet, which ended Sunday. But the rate of decline slowed considerably in March, and the New Orleans racetrack hopes changes to its racing schedule in 2010-2011 will at least bring business back in line with 2008-2009 levels.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Bruce Levine will have two horses to run on Saturday's 11-race card at Aqueduct, but neither is the one he wanted to run.
As the trainer of Buddy's Saint, Levine was hoping he would be using Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial here as a stepping-stone to the Kentucky Derby. Instead, Buddy's Saint is on a farm in Ocala, Fla., recuperating from surgery March 23 to remove a chip from his right front ankle.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Noble's Promise could have his final work for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday, depending on the weather at Oaklawn, trainer Ken McPeek said. Noble's Promise has been based here since finishing second by a head to champion Lookin At Lucky in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel on March 13. Noble's Promise could go favored in the Arkansas Derby on April 10.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A move to turf has redefined the career of City to City, who won a maiden claimer on the Northern California fair circuit in 2009.
Since moving to turf at the start of this year, City to City has won 2 of 3 starts, including the minor China Doll Stakes over a mile Feb. 20. Her next start will be more serious, Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 Providencia Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
The Providencia, run at 1 1/8 miles, will be City to City's first graded stakes appearance, and expectations are high at trainer Jerry Hollendorfer's stable.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Unlike most of the 3-year-olds that will race next Saturday at Keeneland in the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes, Codoy is very unlikely to run back in the Kentucky Derby, regardless of result.
Or so says Mark Hubley, who trains Codoy for the Bred to Win Partners LLC of brothers Jimmy and Larry Doyle and Frank Costa and his daughter Kitty.
"I'm pretty convinced that he cannot run on dirt," said Hubley. "He likes Poly, and he's probably better on grass. I see a lot of purse and a Grade 1" in the Blue Grass.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - As March turned to April last spring, apprentice rider Omar Moreno was headed for Edmonton's Northlands Park, where he would gallop horses in preparation for his 2009 campaign.
Now, heading into the opening days of the 2010 Woodbine meeting, Moreno has been gearing up here for a defense of his title as Canada's outstanding apprentice and a meeting that many believe could put him among the top local riders.
