BLINKERS ON, BLINKERS OFF
The shades just weren't for Win Willy. So for the Grade 3, $150,000 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn on Saturday, trainer Mac Robertson plans to remove blinkers. He would like to see another big stretch run from the horse a la his 56-1 upset in last year's Grade 2 Rebel, and he believes the blinkers that were added two races ago might be inhibiting Win Willy's style.
WHO'S HOT
Speed on the turf has been deadly. All five grass races last week at one mile were won by the pacesetters; the last three weeks, nine of the 14 grass races at one mile were won by horses that led at every call. Does the trend constitute a bias? Well, maybe. Most winners "figured" - the four most-recent winners paid $7.60 or less; three were favored.
WHO'S HOT
Fernando Jara
After winning four races in January, the 22-year-old comeback kid doubled that total with eight wins in February, capped by a front-running score aboard Lights Off Annie ($15.60) in last Sunday's Broadway Stakes, and cracked the top 10 in the standings.
Freud (by default)
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - There have been limited sightings of D. Wayne Lukas-trained horses during Aqueduct's winter meeting the last few years. But with the chance to get a 3-year-old on the Triple Crown trail, Lukas has shipped Wow Wow Wow to New York for Saturday's Grade 3, 250,000 Gotham Stakes.
One horse definitely off the Kentucky Derby trail is William's Kitten, who rallied to finish third in the Grade 3 Holy Bull. Trainer Mike Maker reports that William's Kitten suffered an ankle injury while training up to the Fountain of Youth and has been sent to owner Ken Ramsey's farm in Kentucky.
"It's nothing major but we sent him to the farm last week," said Maker. "We've been sitting all this time waiting to get a mile and one eighth race for him and this happens."
Buddy's Saint resumes training
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Saturday's Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes looked like a perfect spot for proven turf horses such as Lentenor and Interactif. Instead, their trainers decided to pass the race and wait for a different spot and perhaps a surface switch for their talented 3-year-olds.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Palladio, who finished second in the Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita in January, will miss Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap after becoming upset in the moments before a flight was scheduled to leave Florida on Wednesday morning, trainer Roger Attfield said.
Attfield suspected the incident could have been caused by the presence of a full plane of horses. Palladio was flown from Florida to California in January, but Attfield said, "the last time it was not a full plane."
