NEW ORLEANS - One of trainer Greg Foley's entries has a mind of her own, and the other hasn't shown any love for the turf.
Still you have to like Foley's chances when he sends out uncoupled stablemates Valentine Fever and She's Extreme in Monday's featured ninth race, a third-level optional $62,500 claimer scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs on the Fair Grounds turf.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Westover Wildcat, the 2-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday's $65,000 Fred 'Cappy" Capossela Stakes at Aqueduct, was scratched from the race due to a problem with his right front foot, trainer Tony Dutrow said Saturday.
"We're led to believe he has some type of foot problem, an abscess, or infection, something's going on," Dutrow said by phone from Pennsylvania. "I got a phone call at 5:30 [Friday] night that he's lame. Can't run him."
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Jockey Corey Nakatani will ride Dublin in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel at Oaklawn next Saturday, said D. Wayne Lukas, who trains the horse. Nakatani, the meet's leading rider, will replace Terry Thompson, who was aboard Dublin when he finished second in the Grade 3 Southwest last month in his first start since November.
Lukas said the decision was made with William Mack and Robert Baker, who race Dublin, the winner of last year's Grade 1 Hopeful.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Uh Oh Bango, the runner-up to Rule in the Grade 3, $750,000 Delta Jackpot in his last start Dec. 4, breezed at Oaklawn on Friday in preparation for next Saturday's Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel.
Others considered probable for the 1 1/16-mile Rebel include Grade 1 winners Noble's Promise and Dublin. Cardiff Giant, who breezed six furlongs in 1:17.20 here Friday, is also expected. A strong possible is Lookin At Lucky, the champion 2-year-old of 2009.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - A month after trainer Tim Ice split with owners K.K. and Vilasini Jayaraman and lost 25 horses, including champion Summer Bird, the rebuilding process is moving right along for his stable. Ice has picked up horses from three new clients, including Dr. Leonard Blach, co-owner of Kentucky Derby winner Mine that Bird, and John Ed Anthony, who raced the 1992 Preakness and Arkansas Derby winner, Pine Bluff.
"Things are good," Ice said Friday. "I'm definitely in high spirits. I like the way that things are coming around."
NEW ORLEANS - With Rachel Alexandra pointed to return in next Saturday's New Orleans Ladies, the race is shaping up as an intimate affair, with five fillies or mares likely to run.
Although the purse for the race is $200,000, the most of any ungraded stakes at Fair Grounds, most trainers aren't interested in competing against the 2009 Horse of the Year.
The $150,000 Sham Stakes was scheduled to be run at Santa Anita Saturday, but the race also was carded as Sunday's 10th race out of concern that Saturday's 11-race program will be washed out by expected rain.
The Sham Stakes was originally scheduled for Feb. 27, but was postponed to Saturday when wet weather led to the cancellation of the Feb. 27 program. As one of the track's leading preps for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 3, the Sham is a race that needs to be run this weekend to allow 3-year-olds to maintain schedules, track officials said.
Pending California Horse Racing Board approval, Hollywood Park will offer four days of racing for each of the first two weeks and last two weeks of its upcoming spring-summer meeting, according to track officials.
The season, which runs from April 21 to July 18, will have a different schedule during the four-day weeks than in past seasons. The track plans to run on Wednesdays, offer only simulcasting on Thursdays and no live racing, and then run from Fridays through Sundays. That schedule will be in effect for the weeks of April 21-25, April 28-May 2, July 7-11 and July 14-18.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Even in the mornings, Life Is Sweet can be overshadowed by her undefeated stablemate Zenyatta.
Life Is Sweet, the winner of the Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic at Santa Anita last November, worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 at Hollywood Park on Friday. It was the fastest workout of the morning at the distance, until Zenyatta zipped six furlongs in 1:11.80 about 30 minutes later.
Eightyfiveinafifty, who imploded as the 1-4 favorite in the Whirlaway Stakes on Feb. 6, returned to the work tab on Thursday, breezing five furlongs in 1:00.03 over the inner track. The move was the fastest of 11 at the distance.
"It was a nice comeback breeze," trainer Gary Contessa said. "He went the first quarter in 25, the half in 48-and-4. It was the old Eightyfiveinafifty. And he did nothing wrong after the wire. He hugged that turn galloping out."