HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The Grade 2 Davona Dale traditionally serves as a prep for the richer Bonnie Miss later in the meet. But this year the one-mile Davona Dale will not take a back seat to its more prestigious counterpart, having lured a stellar field topped by the speedy Bickersons and Grade 2 winners Amen Hallelujah and Sassy Image.
Despite a surprisingly slow start to the meet, Steve Asmussen is cruising to another Fair Grounds training title, with 53 winners going into Friday's card. Through Thursday, all the North American outposts of his stable had combined to win 97 races in 2010, 46 more than the next-highest total for a trainer, and Asmussen's runners have earned more than $2.1 million early in the year. And yet, with luck, the best part of Asmussen's season is yet to come.
Philadelphia Park is shifting its signature race, the Pennsylvania Derby, from its usual spot on Labor Day to late September.
In a release Friday announcing its major stakes for 2010, the Bensalem, Pa., track explained that it wanted to create a better spot on the calendar for the Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby for trainers who are prepping their 3-year-olds for the Breeders' Cup.
By moving the Pennsylvania Derby to Sept. 25, the race will be six weeks out from the Breeders' Cup.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Jose Lezcano, who rode Buddy's Saint in the Fountain of Youth, started serving a 15-day suspension Monday. Lezcano, the defending Gulfstream Park riding champion, was tied for second in the standings behind John Velazquez at the time his suspension began.
Lezcano was cited for his ride aboard Pitched Perfectly in the sixth race here Feb. 11. The official ruling reads that Lezcano was suspended for "taking his mount out into the path of and repeatedly bumping It's Never to Late near the six-furlong pole, causing interference to both horses."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Bruce Levine has all but ruled out any chance of making the Grade 1 Florida Derby here on March 20 with Buddy's Saint and will now focus on using the Grade 1 Wood Memorial two weeks later at Aqueduct for his 3-year-old's final Kentucky Derby prep.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is pressing the horseracing industry to accept a deal that would call for a 50-day meet at Monmouth Park in Oceanport and eliminate Thoroughbred racing at the Meadowlands, according to an official with knowledge of the discussions.
Aqueduct has canceled Saturday's 10-race program due to the winter storm that has dropped more than a foot of snow on the New York metropolitan area. The track will be open for simulcasting on Saturday.
Aqueduct had already canceled Friday's nine-race card and the facility was to remain closed, meaning no simulcasting.
The racing office will not take entries on Friday for Wednesday, and instead will take double entries Saturday for next Wednesday and Thursday.
She Be Wild and Blind Luck are among the 143 fillies nominated to the 136th Kentucky Oaks, set for April 30 at Churchill Downs. The complete list of nominations can be found at . Churchill officials said nominations to the May 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic were to be released Friday.
Earlier this week, Freaky, the reigning world champion Quarter Horse, underwent precautionary X-rays after winning his seventh consecutive race in the Los Alamitos Winter Championship last Saturday.
Trainer Adan Farias had said Freaky would be given a break until late summer, but went ahead with the X-rays, anyway. The results revealed no problems, he said.
"He was clean, not one pimple," Farias said. "He's 100 percent perfect."
STICKNEY, Ill. - Stakes racing in Chicago still lies far beyond the horizon, with the first 2010 stakes race - the Illinois Derby - scheduled for April 3 at Hawthorne. But Hawthorne, still in a wintry grip, managed to fill a second-level two-turn allowance race also open to $30,000 claimers, the headliner on Saturday's program.
