Two locally based hopefuls for next month's $1 million Charles Town Classic will tune up on Saturday night at Charles Town.
Defending champion Researcher and multiple stakes winner Russell Road are both entered in Saturday's eighth race, a 1 1/16-mile optional claimer that serves as the final local prep for the 1 1/8-mile Classic on April 17.
Scooter Roach has done well for owner/trainer Charlie Lawson since beginning his Beulah Park campaign last Nov. 27.
He won his first two starts, running for a $2,500 tag and then for $3,500. Scooter Roach has been off the board only once in his last four starts and hasn't caught a fast track since his first two races, possibly giving an excuse to the 11-year-old gelding in his last four outings.
The only clue the program offers as to where Scooter Roach, a son of Mi Cielo, has been throughout his career is his earnings line of $842,014.
Red Lead is one of several sharp older horses who will meet Saturday night in the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup at Sam Houston Race Park. The 1 1/8-mile handicap is the richest dirt race of the meet and will share a card with the $50,000 Sam Houston Distaff, led by Bubbler.
Entries for both races were taken Wednesday.
Red Lead is seeking his second straight stakes win. He rolled home by two lengths last month in the $50,000 Curribot at his Sunland Park base. For the Maxxam, Red Lead, who has natural speed, drew post 9 in a field of 10.
A plausible assumption is that the winner of the Lane's End Stakes on Saturday will run back five weeks later in the Kentucky Derby as the $500,000 purse and Grade 2 ranking virtually assure the winner a spot in the 20-horse field.
Another plausible assumption is that Connemara will win the Turfway Park showcase as a solid favorite, giving Todd Pletcher yet another bullet in his Derby holster.
Putting the two assumptions together, however, might be a bit premature.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The third and final pool of the 2010 Kentucky Derby Future Wager kicks off Friday at noon Eastern amid a bit of awkward timing. In most prior years Churchill Downs would have waited until next weekend for Pool 3, but with the way the calendar falls, the track felt the best option was this weekend.
"With this being a very early Derby (May 1), we made a conscious effort to try to get this pool out ahead of things, to kind of emphasize the 'future' aspect of the futures," said Churchill spokesman John Asher.
Oaklawn Park's announcer, Terry Wallace, is scheduled to reach a significant milestone as of Thursday's third race, according to track historians. The claiming sprint will be his 20,000th consecutive race call at Oaklawn as he has not missed announcing a single race at the track since he came on board in 1975. Wallace got his start as an announcer in 1968, when he was a substitute for Chic Anderson at Latonia.
The Oracle of Delphi did not need to be called. Nor was tea-leaf reading or an analysis of the signs of the zodiac necessary. No, divining the likely outcome of the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 20 after less than 25 percent of the race had been run required only a glance at the opening quarter-mile fraction: 24.60 seconds.
"After the opening quarter, I knew I was going to lose the race, and that's the worst feeling in the world when you're excited about a race," trainer Tom Amoss said.
Craig Fravel, the executive vice president of Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in La Jolla, Calif., has been promoted to president and general manager, taking over two of the titles previously held by Joe Harper, who will remain the not-for-profit company's chief executive officer, according to Del Mar.
In addition, Michael R. Ernst will now hold the titles of executive vice president for finance and chief financial officer, while Thomas S. Robbins will be the track's executive vice president for racing and industry relations and the track's racing secretary.
