STICKNEY, Ill. - The 17-year-old apprentice rider Dusty Shepherd won four races during all of 2008. Two races into the Hawthorne spring meet, and Shepherd already had gotten halfway to that total.
Shepherd dead-heated for first in Friday's meet-opening race, then won the second race outright. Not just that, but his agent, Jimmy Ernesto, has lined up plenty of business to keep Shepherd busy, at least during this softer early phase of the Chicago racing season.
The Fair Grounds grass course, that notorious swallower of early-speed horses, lost its teeth on Saturday. A horse went wire to wire going two turns early on the card, and in the $60,000 Allen Lacombe Stakes, John Jacinto walked the dog with 22-1 shot Gold Wonder, backing up the pace and scoring by three-quarters of a length.
Gold Wonder has improved throughout the Fair Grounds meet for trainer Michelle Lovell. Most recently, he set the pace and finished fourth behind strong allowance competition on Feb. 20, but in the Lacombe, no one could catch him.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - King Leatherbury is a man of his word.
Earlier this week, the legendary Maryland-based trainer said Ah Day was ready to fire off a 216-day layoff and that he would give apprentice jockey Sheldon Russell his first stakes win in the Grade 3 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct.
Giant Oak, fully recovered from a mouth injury that cost him a work on Feb. 28, tuned up for his start in the Louisiana Derby with a strong five-furlong drill on Saturday morning at Fair Grounds. Giant Oak, a wide second to Beethoven in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in his final start at 2, and a troubled fifth in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds in his 3-year-old debut, was timed in 1:00.80 for five furlongs, the second-fastest among 36 works at the distance Saturday.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Trainer Benny R. Feliciano was granted just five stalls for the Tampa Bay Downs meeting but he has made the most of his opportunities. When Feliciano, a former jockey, sent out Richie London to win the fourth race on Friday, it gave him seven winners from just 18 starts for a winning percentage of 38.
Feliciano was quick to give his son, the jockey Ricardo Feliciano, a lot of the credit. Ricardo rides most of his dad's horses.
Snug dueled throughout but still had enough left to win the the $75,000 Gold Cup on Friday night at Delta Downs. Snug won by a neck over a fast-closing Tortuga Straits, with Costa Rising, the 1-2 favorite, seven and a quarter lengths back in fifth.
Snug ($11.60) dueled with Classy Delights through fractions of 22.92 seconds for the opening quarter, 46.88 for the half-mile and 1:13.09 for six furlongs. He went on to cover the seven furlongs, which was run around two turns, in 1:26.59.
A stewards' hearing for trainer Steve Asmussen concerning a horse in his care who tested positive for lidocaine has been reset for May 12, more than a year after the filly in question, Timber Trick, won a maiden special weight race at Lone Star Park, on May 10, 2008.
Jean Cook, a spokesperson for the Texas Racing Commission, said the hearing would be held at Lone Star.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Randy Meier is the all-time leading jockey in terms of wins at Hawthorne Race Course, and his son Brandon, an apprentice jockey, surely finds much to emulate about his father. There is one path that the elder Meier has traveled, however, that 20-year-old Brandon would like to avoid - the amazingly long string of injuries that have cost Randy Meier a good portion of his career.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Pioneerof the Nile is likely to face a small field when he attempts to extend his streak of graded stakes wins to three in next Saturday's $200,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita.
Trainer Bob Baffert said on Friday that he is leaning to starting only Pioneerof the Nile and is unlikely to start stablemate Zensational, the winner of a six-furlong maiden race on Feb. 21.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Giant Moon's comeback is complete.
The New York-bred juvenile champion of 2007, Giant Moon returned to the winner's circle for the first time in 14 months on Friday with a hard-fought, one-length victory in the $65,950 Mr. G.J.G. Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct.
See More Spirit, who looked like he was going to go by Giant Moon in the stretch, had to settle for second, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Dr. D.F.C.