ELMONT, N.Y. - New York Racing Association officials are hoping to have at least a "wet-fast" main track over which to run the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.
Though the forecast for Saturday calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 70s, the spate of wet weather that has hovered over Belmont Park for the last two days has created extremely sloppy conditions. Friday's 10 races - including the five races scheduled for the turf - were all run over a sloppy main track.
Hollywood Park received approval from the California Horse Racing Board on Friday to eliminate racing on the final five Wednesdays of its current spring-summer meeting, which runs through July 19.
Despite opposition from labor unions and the racing board's chairman, John Harris, the request was approved by a 5-1 vote after a 95-minute debate.
Hollywood Park will not run on June 17 and 24 and July 1, 8 and 15, but will offer simulcasting of northern California fair races on the last four days.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The first time Jeremy Rose worked Despite the Odds, he thought the horse would be one of the 3-year-olds that would be competing in the Triple Crown series. While that didn't quite work out, Despite the Odds gave a glimpse of his potential Friday, splashing his way to a 7 1/2-length victory in the $109,000 Hill Prince Stakes at Belmont Park.
Affirmatif, who dueled outside of Despite the Odds early on, settled for second, 6 1/4 lengths ahead of Dubinsky. Conservative, who was the 7-5 favorite, Rendezvous, and Duke of Homberg completed the order of finish.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bullsbay will put his perfect record at Churchill Downs on the line next Saturday when he faces perhaps the toughest test of his career as one of the main challengers to Einstein in the Grade 1, $600,000 Stephen Foster Handicap.
Based at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland with trainer Graham Motion, Bullsbay won the Grade 3 Alysheba Stakes on the May 1 Kentucky Oaks undercard to move his record over the Churchill main track to 3 for 3. He posted two powerful allowance wins here last fall.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Classical Slew, the winner of the year's first stakes for 2-year-olds in California on Thursday at Hollywood Park, could stay in California or race at Saratoga later this summer.
Trainer Doug O'Neill said he is strongly considering sending horses to Saratoga this summer in addition to having his main stable at Del Mar.
"We've got the great problem of having too many in the same division," he said. Saratoga "could be an option."
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Paul Souter was busy pounding the pavement at Fort Erie last Wednesday.
A former rider, Souter has been a jockey agent at this border oval for the last three years.
"Luckily, I love to walk," said Souter, "and this job has me doing plenty of that.
"I've been around the track for nearly 40 years, beginning as a groom in the early 70's at Woodbine, and became a jockey a few years later. I can tell you honestly, this job is the toughest of them all."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The unusual relationship between locally based Swift Thoroughbreds Inc. and Darley Stable has added a new dimension to the racing at Hastings.
Swift Thoroughbreds is a family affair. The main players in Swift are longtime friends Mark Mache and Horatio Kemeny. Their wives, Naudie Mache and Jackie Kemeny, are also active members of the stable.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, on the other hand, is the ruler of Dubai, the owner of Darley, and runs one of the most powerful racing operations in the world.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Jake Wil Gallop, who just missed setting a course record at Lone Star Park in last month's $100,000 USA Stakes, was due to arrive at Churchill Downs on Sunday for a date with graded competition. His trainer, Leroy Hellman, said Jake Wil Gallop is being pointed to the Grade 2, $200,000 Jefferson Cup for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on turf on the Stephen Foster undercard June 13.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Fleet Streak and Pull Dancer, both based south of the border, should give the locals a run for the money in Sunday's Alywow, one of two supporting stakes on the Woodbine Oaks Day program.
The Alywow, a 6 1/2-furlong turf race for 3-year-old fillies, is an overnight stakes offering a purse of $100,000. It attracted a field of nine.
Fleet Streak, a Kentucky-bred trained by David Carroll, will be cutting back in distance after an eventful trip in a first-level allowance over one mile of turf at Churchill Downs on April 30.
