Jockey Paul Nolan has been a force in the Sam Houston Race Park standings since the meet opened back in November. Now, with an 18-win advantage heading into the final three weeks of the meet, his goal of winning his first title at the track is well within his grasp.
"That's my main objective right now, to keep my nose in front," Nolan said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Life Is Sweet, the winner of the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Santa Anita last November, was retired on Saturday after suffering muscle cramps following a workout at Hollywood Park, owner Marty Wygod and trainer John Shirreffs said.
Life Is Sweet will be bred to Smart Strike, Wygod said.
Life Is Sweet had suffered muscle cramps at times in the past, including on the day of a scheduled start in the San Gorgonio Handicap at Santa Anita in January. The incident on Saturday, which Shirreffs described as minor, led Wygod to retire the 5-year-old mare.
ARCADIA, Calif. There are three stakes at Santa Anita next weekend, including two Grade 2, $150,000 stakes, but the lesser of the three - the $100,000 Irish O'Brien Stakes for statebred fillies and mares on Saturday - may hold the most intrigue.
A Jealous Woman, who has won four consecutive starts, makes her stakes debut, and first start on the hillside turf course in the Irish O'Brien. Trained by Bill Spawr, A Jealous Woman's four wins have all come on turf, the most recent of which was an optional claimer over 1 1/8 miles here on Feb. 19.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Well Armed, last year's winner of the Dubai World Cup, is recovering from an illness and may not rejoin Eoin Harty's stable until April, the trainer said on Friday.
Earlier this year, Harty had hoped that Well Armed could return in January or February, but the gelding got sick while resting at owner Bill Casner's farm in Texas earlier this year and Harty doesn't expect him back until the meeting ends on April 18.
"We'll get him going and see what races there are," Harty said. "It took him a long time to get over [the illness]."
ARCADIA, Calif. - The disappointments in Slew's Tiznow's career have been many. He has made only 11 starts in more than 2 1/2 years of racing.
More successful days may finally be coming.
Friday at Santa Anita, Slew's Tiznow won the fourth race of his career, an allowance race over a mile. Ridden by Garrett Gomez, Slew's Tiznow tracked pacesetter Aggie Engineer to early stretch and took the lead in the final sixteenth before winning by a half-length. Slew's Tiznow ($15.60) ran a mile in 1:36.
PHOENIX - It was just a few months ago that Twin Sparks won the Caballos del Sol at Turf Paradise and set a world record for six furlongs of 1:06.49. But that fact hardly scared away the opposition for Monday's $25,000 Coyote Handicap as 12 others have signed on to take a swing at Twin Sparks in the 6 1/2-furlong race.
The reason? Some of the shine has come off Twin Sparks, who enters off a seventh-place finish as the 7-5 favorite in the Phoenix Gold Cup.
ALBANY, Calif. - Jockey Francisco Duran recorded the 1,000th victory of his career Friday when he won a photo aboard Karmalize ($16.20) in a one-mile race for 3-year-old maidens.
Duran, 32, won his first race in 2001 and was a finalist for the 2002 Eclipse Award for the leading apprentice. In Friday's race he put Karmalize on the lead, discouraged Smarter Temper into the lane and then held off The Hunt is On to win by a nose with Saravas Wild Again another neck back.
Karmalize was the 7,590th mount in Duran's career. His mounts have won over $16 million.
Aqueduct has canceled its Saturday card due to rain that began overnight Friday and which was forecast to continue throughout Saturday, and winds gusting to more than 25 miles per hour.
The Grade 3, $100,000 Cicada for 3-year-old fillies, scheduled for Saturday, will now be run March 20 on a card that also includes the $65,000 Kings Point for older New York-breds.
Aqueduct will be open for simulcasting Saturday, and telephone and internet wagering will be available.
Soaring Empire, an impressive seven-furlong allowance winner here earlier in the meet, has tossed his hat in the ring for next Saturday's Grade 1 Florida Derby, said trainer Cam Gambolati.
Soaring Empire, a son of Empire Maker, is owned by Rick Pitino's Ol Memorial Stable and Clinton Glasscock. Soaring Empire has won 2 of his 3 starts, with his lone loss a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Iroquois at Churchill Downs in his 2-year-old finale.
NEW ORLEANS - Conveyance already has won the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, and Lookin At Lucky was to go off favored in the Rebel Stakes there Saturday. Bob Baffert's Southern California synthetic-to-dirt shippers are making hay in Arkansas, and Baffert also will try to take down the March 27 Louisiana Derby here at Fair Grounds.
