HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Wayne Catalano will put his training skills to the test again.
Catalano scratched She Be Wild, last year's 2-year-old filly champion, out of Saturday's Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs and instead will train her up to the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland on April 3. The Ashland, run over a synthetic surface, will be She Be Wild's second race of the year and first in nine weeks.
The results of the $100,000 Borderland Derby last month at Sunland Park have been appealed by the connections of Raise the Bridle, who finished first but was disqualified for impeding a rival and placed second. The appeal of the stewards' decision is scheduled to be heard at Thursday's meeting of the New Mexico Racing Commission.
Raise the Bridle races for Buena Suerte Equine and Double Eagle Ranch, the New Mexico-based partnership that owns Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.
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.
