Indiana Downs in Shelbyville, Ind., opens its 2009 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meet Monday with bigger purses, two new six-figure stakes, and more Quarter Horse and turf racing than last year.
The 62-day meet runs through July 15. Last year, the meet was 54 days.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - The fortunes of a racing stable often run in streaks, and nobody can attest to that fact more than trainer Brenda McCarthy.
The first half of the race meet here at Tampa was a period that the McCarthy outfit would just as soon forget, as the stable won a single race from its 58 starters. McCarthy says inexperienced help and horses that had been running hard for months were reasons for the dry spell.
Georgie Boy, the top sprinter in California and the best horse scheduled to run April 25 at Hollywood Park on $1.3 million Gold Rush card, has been temporarily sidelined with a quarter crack that knocks him out of the $150,000 Tiznow Stakes opening weekend of the spring-summer meet.
Trainer Kathy Walsh said Georgie Boy popped the quarter Friday on the inside of his right front. "It's just a small one and not a big deal," she said. "I could put a patch on it, but I'm going to grow it out and get it down. It's a long year, and I want to give him plenty of time."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Justwhistledixie, who has emerged as the likely second choice to Rachel Alexandra in the Kentucky Oaks, worked five furlongs in 1:00 with her Kiaran McLaughlin-trained stablemate Fitz Just Right on Friday morning at Keeneland.
Both 3-year-old fillies are owned by the West Point Thoroughbreds partnership.
Justwhistledixie is the more accomplished of the two. She most recently won the Bonnie Miss Stakes at Gulfstream Park for her fifth consecutive victory.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Boosted by a promotion of free general admission on Fridays, Santa Anita will end its winter-spring meeting on Sunday with a slight increase in ontrack attendance but a drop in ontrack handle, track president Ron Charles said.
Charles described the attendance figures as "very encouraging" despite a tough economic climate. He did not provide exact figures. "We have a chance to be up in attendance and have a chance to be close in ontrack handle," he said.
STICKNEY, Ill. - The longtime New Orleans horseman Louie Roussel took a four-year break from training his horses, with assistant Lara Van Deren down as Roussel's trainer from 2004 to 2007. Back as trainer in 2008, Roussel, who won two-thirds of the Triple Crown co-owning and training Risen Star, got to the Kentucky Derby, where Recapturetheglory finished a respectable fifth.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Cawaja Beach, unbeaten and virtually untested in four starts last year for trainer and part-owner Scott Fairlie, had her campaign cut short last fall when she came up with a lesion on a tendon.
That left Milwaukee Appeal to carry the baton for the Fairlie stable in the 2-year-old filly ranks, and she responded well, with a second-place finish in the 1 1/16 mile Princess Elizabeth and a victory in the 1 1/16 mile Ontario Lassie.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The decision by trainer Dale Greenwood and owner Danny Dion to leave Alberta and race at Hastings this year has already had a positive impact on racing here. In the first two days, they have entered seven horses.
Greenwood entered the Dion-owned pair of Bears Artiste and Broken Hearted in the seventh race on Sunday, a $75,000 optional claiming race. Without the two stakes-winning fillies, the race might not have been carded.