HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Grasshopper made a successful return from a 9 1/2-month layoff as well as a successful debut for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, outgaming Gentleman James by a neck to capture Wednesday's $56,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park.
Grasshopper, beaten a half-length by Street Sense in the 2007 Travers, was making his first start since finishing sixth in Keeneland's Grade 3 Ben Ali on April 19. He was transferred to McLaughlin's barn in August.
Favorites do not get much more lopsided than the Quarter Horse Freaky was in a division of the Los Alamitos Winter Championship trials last Saturday.
Freaky, the 2009 World Champion, was so heavily backed to win the last of three trials on Saturday that there was a minus win pool of $67, which is almost unheard of in win betting.
Embattled Thoroughbred owner Michael Gill said Wednesday that the 40 or so horses he has had stabled at Penn National Race Course are being moved to his private farm as he continues to liquidate his stable, a process sparked by the controversy in which he has been embroiled in Pennsylvania since Jan. 23.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has called a press conference for Thursday morning amid widespread speculation the track is attempting to bring Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta together for the first time, likely in the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap.
Officials have not revealed the nature of the press conference. The invitations to it feature a cover that says, "A Race for the Ages." Inside, it reads that a "special announcement" will be made "regarding one of the greatest stakes races in our 106-year history."
Penn National Race Course has averted an apparent jockeys' boycott and a major disruption to its Wednesday night program after the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission ruled off controversial owner Michael Gill, who had planned to run horses in four of the track's nine Wednesday races.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Anthony Dutrow confirmed Tuesday that Winslow Homer has suffered a stress fracture in his cannon bone that will keep him sidelined through the Triple Crown season. Winslow Homer was considered among the leading Kentucky Derby prospects following his victory in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23.
Baffert won the Grade 1 Santa Monica Handicap for female sprinters on Sunday with Gabby's Golden Gal, whose long-term goal is the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on May 1.
"We want to win as many Grade 1's as possible," Baffert said.
Owned by Arnold Zetcher, Gabby's Golden Gal, 4, has won two Grade 1 races in her career, including the Acorn Stakes against 3-year-olds fillies at a mile at Belmont Park last summer.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Champion 2-year-old Lookin At Lucky returned to the racetrack at Santa Anita on Tuesday after being given the weekend off because of a slight illness, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Baffert said Lookin At Lucky did not train over the weekend because "he had a little temperature and it scared me."
"He was probably okay, but I didn't want to take any chances," Baffert said. "He went back to the track and he looked good."
The 2010 stakes schedule at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La., has only a few minor changes from last year's docket. There will once again be 24 stakes, including five stakes scheduled for the turf. The schedule will be worth $1.75 million, a decrease of $100,000 from 2009.
Jonesboro has been made the 120-pound highweight for the $100,000 Essex Handicap here on Saturday, but he won't be making his fourth appearance in the 1 1/16-mile race. Instead, he will be sprinting here Friday in the $50,000 King Cotton.
Jonesboro was to run in the King Cotton, at six furlongs, last Saturday. But a winter storm led to the cancellation of three straight days of racing at Oaklawn, from Friday through Sunday, and the race was rescheduled for Friday.
