ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Reade Baker had a career year in 2008, winning eight stakes races and finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Sprint with Fatal Bullet.
And while Baker won't be matching those numbers this season, he is far from disappointed with his outfit's performance.
"I think it's been a good year," said Baker. "I had almost as good a year as last year in Canada, but I didn't have nearly as good a year in the States."
The Arkansas Racing Commission on Tuesday approved Oaklawn Park's request to change its longstanding minimum payout scale.
In the event of a minus pool the minimum payout on a $2 wager will now be $2.10 for the meet that opens Jan. 15. It had been $2.20, which made Arkansas one of the last states with that high of a minimum.
The new minimum payout is more in line with other jurisdictions that take Oaklawn's simulcast signal, said Byron Freeland, an attorney for the commission. As a result, it makes for cleaner simulcast contracts.
WinStar Farm will be seeking its third 2-year-old graded stakes win in three weeks on Friday night, when Rule starts as the possible favorite in the Grade 3, $750,000 Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs.
The 1 1/16-mile race will share a program with the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Princess for 2-year-old fillies at a mile. The races are two of six stakes on a card worth more than $1.6 million.
Macho Again finished ninth in the Clark Handicap on Friday, a disappointing conclusion to an occasionally excellent 2009 campaign. But Macho Again is back at Fair Grounds, no worse for wear, according to trainer Dallas Stewart, and ready to crank up for another go of things in 2010.
"He came back sound, and he's eating well," Stewart said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Diamondrella, a two-time Grade 1 winner this year who was third in the Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park last Saturday, will remain in California in 2010, trainer Gary Stevens said.
Owned by IEAH Stables, Diamondrella, 5, has won 8 of 19 starts and $820,576.
"The plan is that she stays in training," Stevens said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva already had galloped and worked several horses here at Woodbine the other morning and now was on his way to tae kwon do class.
"It's helped me, mentally and physically," said da Silva, of the Korean martial arts discipline which he has been studying for 4 1/2 years. "It's always challenging; there's always something to work on."
Da Silva has held his first-degree black belt in tae kwon do for the past 2 1/2 years.
MIAMI - Monday's revelation that a horse stabled at Calder Race Course had tested positive for the equine herpesvirus and the subsequent quarantine of the barn area will have both an immediate and long-term impact on the track's racing programs.
MIAMI - Three barns at Calder Race Course have been placed under quarantine after a horse tested postive Monday for the equine herpesvirus, said track veterinarian Dr. Patty Marquis.
The unidentified horse, trained by Bill White, tested positive at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville. The horse had shown symptoms of neurological illness over the weekend.
Two-year-old fillies will be featured at Golden Gate Fields in Saturday's $50,000 Corte Madera Stakes at one mile. Twelve were nominated, but bettors may not have to go beyond Antares World, first among the 12 in alphabetical order, to find the winner.
She Be Wild, winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, had been pre-entered in Friday night's Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Princess at Delta Downs, but her connections have decided to pass on the race and have sent her from Kentucky to Gulfstream Park to prepare for a 3-year-old campaign. The long-term target for her is the Kentucky Oaks.
"That's kind of going to be our goal," said Wayne Catalano, who trains She Be Wild for Nancy Mazzoni. "How we get there, we've got to map that out."
