Beautician and Blind Luck, the second and third-place finishers of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies last month, lead a field of seven 2-year-old fillies entered for Sunday's Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes.
The field had a surprise entrant in Rose Catherine, who was second in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf. Trained by Todd Pletcher, Rose Catherine is seeking her first stakes win, and first win on a synthetic main track.
Remington Park in Oklahoma City closed out its 67-date meet Monday night with a 9 percent decline in average daily handle on its races. The track cited the economic downturn as well as a race-week schedule change as factors contributing to the business slide.
Remington handled an average $545,244 a day on its live races this meet. Of that amount, an average $471,101 a day was bet on the track's races at export sites, down 8 percent from 2008's 67-day meet.
Miss Missile, an 11-time stakes winner based in Texas, will be out of action for at least three months after she was found to have a hairline fracture in her left foreleg just before shipping to New Mexico for a stakes in late November.
"We got lucky we found it before we did any structural damage," said Charlie Smith, who owns and trains Miss Missile.
Miss Missile was diagnosed with a nondisplaced hairline fracture in a left front sesamoid. It will simply require time to let the slight fracture heal back together, said Smith.
MIAMI - Any doubts about trainer Jorge Navarro's patience can be answered in three words. La Chica Sensual.
Navarro was advised to give La Chica Sensual, who came within a head of sweeping the filly division of the 2008 Florida Stakes, eight months off after she suffered a tendon injury while training up to the Delta Princess late last fall. Instead, Navarro gave her a full year to recuperate. She'll finally launch her much-awaited comeback going 5 1/2 furlongs under allowance conditions in Saturday's featured 11th race.
A group known as the Fort Erie Racing Consortium has reached a three-year lease agreement with the track's owners, Nordic Gaming, the group announced Thursday.
The consortium is comprised of the Economic Development and Tourism Corporation, the Town of Fort Erie, and the Ontario Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association. The agreement will run from 2010 through 2012.
Every year beginning in January, the racing spotlight is cast on Gulfstream Park, the premier track in Florida, which consistently offers some of the best winter racing in the country.
Yet Florida racing deserves more than just seasonal attention. Calder Race Course, which runs from late April until the start of Gulfstream, has become a hot spot for up-and-coming 2-year-olds in recent years, as evidenced by the results of horses who raced there this year.
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Safety and Integrity Alliance has accredited Fair Grounds Race Course and Slots in New Orleans, according to the organization and the track.
Fair Grounds is the fourth and last track owned by Churchill Downs Inc. to be accredited by the alliance, which launched its accreditation program earlier this year. Churchill also owns Churchill Downs in Louisville, Calder Race Course in Florida, and Arlington Park outside of Chicago.
