GROVE CITY, Ohio - Beulah Park begins its winter/spring meet Saturday, with many business issues settled and some still up in the air.
What is certain is that Beulah will run 70 days this spring, and another 52 in the fall. Dates for 2009 were finally agreed upon in late December, when Beulah Park, River Downs, and the Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association settled their dispute over account-wagering revenue distribution and the number of days each track will run.
The Portland Meadows jockeys defeated a riding team from Golden Gate Fields on Wednesday in the first Golden Gate-Portland Meadows Jockey Challenge at the Portland track.
Portland riders finished one-two-three in the competition, which comprised four races. Debbie Hoonan-Trujillo scored one victory and had a pair of seconds to win the event. Javier Matias, who had a first, second and third from his four mounts, was second, with David Lopez, a late replacement for the injured Joe Crispin, third with one victory. Mark Anderson was the fourth Portland rider.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There was only one winning favorite in Wednesday's pick-six sequence at Santa Anita, resulting in a carryover of $102,377 for Thursday's program.
The pick six covers the third through eighth races on an eight-race program that begins at 1 p.m. Pacific. The third race, a claimer over 6 1/2 furlongs, has six runners, but the other five pick six races have eight or more entrants. The feature is the seventh race, an allowance race on the hillside turf course for fillies and mares.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Winter vacation ended on Wednesday for Zenyatta, the nation's leading older female.
Undefeated in nine starts and a candidate for the 2008 Horse of the Year title, Zenyatta jogged about a mile at Hollywood Park on Wednesday. It was her first main-track exercise since winning the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 24.
The same race in November is the long-term goal for owners Jerry and Ann Moss and trainer John Shirreffs. How she will reach that race is unclear, Shirreffs said. Wednesday, he was content to see Zenyatta back to work.
NEW ORLEANS - It probably was a horse named Gold Coyote that brought Clarence Scharbauer Jr. back into the big game. A Texas homebred, Gold Coyote won two Texas stakes, but met his Waterloo trying to stretch out to one mile in the 2005 Arlington-Washington Futurity at Arlington Park.
"I think that horse got Clarence's blood pumping again," said Ken Carson, Scharbauer's longtime right-hand horse man. "Clarence said, 'If we're going to take dead aim on the big races, I guess we got to go back to Kentucky, don't we?' "
NEW ORLEANS - Fair Grounds opens its racetrack for training at 5:30 a.m., and Wednesday morning it was pitch dark, chilly, and breezy at that hour of roosters and Bourbon Street stragglers. But Old Fashioned is a horse worth getting up for, and it was but moments after the start of training that Larry Jones gave his 3-year-old Kentucky Derby hopeful Old Fashioned his first work of 2008, a half-mile breeze that was timed in 48.20 seconds.
"He just stretched his legs," Jones said during Wednesday's track renovation break. "He went really nice."
Turfway Park has lifted its self-imposed ban on rear toe grabs after eight horses suffered catastrophic injuries at the 21-day holiday meet that ended Dec. 31. By comparison, only four catastrophic injuries occurred during the 27-day holiday meet in 2007.
Evangeline Downs has named Coleman Lloyd as its new racing secretary. He replaces Jason Boulet, who took the same position at Fair Grounds this past October.
Lloyd, 55, is a longtime fixture in Louisiana racing, having worked as a trainer, jockey agent, and racing official. He most recently served as rider Terry Thompson's agent. His extensive experience in dealing with Louisiana horsemen contributed to him getting the position, according to Evangeline officials.
Evangeline's 89-day meeting gets under way April 8 and runs through Labor Day.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Thus far, 2009 has been awful kind to trainer Tom Albertrani.
After ending 2008 on a 1-for-16 skein, Albertrani won 3 races from 6 starters last week at Aqueduct in addition to winning the Grade 3 Old Hat Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
"It's been a good year," Albertrani said by phone Wednesday from south Florida.
Sierra Sunset, who has not raced since winning the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes last March at Oaklawn Park, is part of a 15-horse string Northern California-based trainer Jeff Bonde began shipping to Oaklawn on Wednesday. It will be the first division of horses Bonde has ever had at the Hot Springs, Ark., track, which opens its meet on Jan. 16.
