ARCADIA, Calif. - Pioneerof the Nile has had 14 workouts since joining trainer Bob Baffert's stable after a fifth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last October.
None caught the trainer's eye in the same way as a half-mile work in 46.20 seconds at Santa Anita on Wednesday.
"It's probably the best work since I've had him," Baffert said.
Put up the money, they will come.
Led by Grade 1 winners Commentator and Mast Track, Saturday's Charles Town Classic - with a tiered purse structure that starts at $500,000 - drew a solid field of 10 older horses set to contest 1 1/8 miles.
As Grade 1 winners, Commentator and Mast Track are running for $1 million in purse money. Dry Martini, Magnum and Zappa - all Grade 2 winners - are running for $750,000. Researcher and Ah Day, both Grade 3 winners, are running for $600,000, while the rest of the field - No Advantage, Ea, and Delaware River - are running for $500,000.
CINCINNATI - River Downs begins its 85th season of racing Friday and, as is tradition, the 102-day meet will run through Labor Day, Sept. 7.
The meet's schedule came after lengthy negotiations, as track management and the Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association were at odds over account-wagering revenue splits. Normally racing dates in Ohio are requested in August and allotted in September. But this agreement wasn't reached until Dec. 19.
Atlantic City Race Course is no longer running in the dark.
For the first time in 10 years, the signal from Atlantic City's short all-turf meet will be broadcast to simulcast locations across the country when the track opens for live racing on Thursday. The opening-day card is the first of six cards spread out over the next three weeks.
Jockey Chris Landeros is a near-scratch golfer, one not to bet against on the course.
Lone Star horseplayers learned this past week not to bet against him on the racetrack, either. A 20-year-old California native and a newcomer to Texas racing, Landeros won with 7 of 27 mounts opening week and vaulted to an early lead in the rider standings.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Paulo Lobo, who trained the champion Farda Amiga earlier in this decade, is moving his stable from California to New York later this month, he said this week.
Lobo, 40, said he will move 25 horses from his current base at Hollywood Park to Belmont Park in the last week of April.
"I was thinking about this for a while," he said. "I don't have anything against California. It was a decision for me and my owners. Almost all of my owners would like to do this.
"I've been very lucky here. It's time for a change."
AUBURN, Wash. - Preparations for opening night at Emerald Downs continued this week, though one of the track's biggest personalities and most successful trainers will be missing when the 91-day season begins Friday.
Bud Klokstad, a fixture at Pacific Northwest tracks for more than 50 years, declined his Emerald Downs stall allocation and will spend the summer in Northern California, where he has 20 horses in training at Golden Gate Fields and was winning at a 26 percent clip through Sunday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - I Want Revenge, one of the top contenders for the 135th Kentucky Derby, had his first breeze over the Churchill Downs surface when going an easy half-mile Tuesday morning in 50 seconds under regular rider Joe Talamo.
Over a muddy and sealed racetrack, and with trainer Jeff Mullins watching frontside, I Want Revenge went in splits of 12.40, 24.40, and 36.80, galloping out five furlongs in 1:04.60.
"He needed to do enough to keep himself safe, because he's been tearing the barn down," Mullins said afterward. "We had to let him do a little something today."
Although there were only four confirmed entrants early in the week, the Golden Gate Fields racing office is hopeful that the field for Saturday's $75,000 Golden Poppy, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies, will flush out a little when entries are taken Wednesday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - John Campo Jr. considers himself a lucky man. That might sound weird considering he is the trainer for Paraneck Stable, an outfit currently unable to run its horses after its authorized agent, Ernie Paragallo, was charged with 22 counts of animal abuse for neglecting horses on his Center Brook Farm in upstate New York.