NEW ORLEANS - At the halfway mark of the Fair Grounds season, the jockey leader board has a familiar look to it. First place: James Graham, who finished second last year. Second place: Jamie Theriot, who won the title last year for the first time. And third place: Robby Albarado, six-time Fair Grounds leading rider.
After arriving three weeks into the meet, Albarado has made up for lost time by winning at a prodigious 22 percent clip, booting home 10 winners in the last week alone.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Ken McPeek has a problem any trainer would love to have at this early stage of the season, keeping his trio of talented 3-year-olds from running against one another while finding suitable spots for them to proceed along the Kentucky Derby trail.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Pure Clan has returned to Oaklawn following a vacation and is to resume galloping this coming week, her trainer, Bob Holthus, said on Friday. The winner of the Grade 1 American Oaks at Hollywood Park last July, she was one of the top 3-year-olds to come out of the Oaklawn meet in 2008.
"We brought her home and gave her 90 days off, freshened her up," Holthus said. "She needed a little time. We'll probably have her ready to run the first of May or late April."
Keeneland Race Course has released the stakes schedule for its 2009 spring meet with a number of substantive changes, most notably an overall reduction of $600,000 in purses.
Two races, the Royal Chase for the Sport of Kings and the Lafayette Stakes, were dropped from the spring meet, which runs April 3-24. In addition, the purse for the Commonwealth Stakes was reduced from $400,000 to $250,000; the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes has gone from $500,000 to $400,000; and the Grade 2 Beaumont Stakes from $250,000 to $150,000.
Keeneland Race Course has released the stakes schedule for its 2009 spring meet with a number of substantive changes, most notably an overall reduction of $600,000 in purses.
Two races, the Royal Chase for the Sport of Kings and the Lafayette Stakes, were dropped from the spring meet, which runs April 3-24. In addition, the purse for the Commonwealth Stakes was reduced from $400,000 to $250,000; the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes has gone from $500,000 to $400,000; and the Grade 2 Beaumont Stakes from $250,000 to $150,000.
Longtime Ontario trainer Norm Bowles died of a heart attack Tuesday at age 69. He trained for more than 40 years at Woodbine and Fort Erie.
Bowles is survived by his wife, Laura, sons Kent and Leslie, and three grandchildren.
A service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Baptist Church, 2 Wellington St. in East Brampton, Ontario. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation or the Salvation Army.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Cash Asmussen's name has begun showing up in the entries at Oaklawn, Retama Park, and Delta Downs over the past month - but not as a rider. The former champion jockey is now training after spending the past four years as an assistant and consultant to his wife, Cheryl Asmussen.
"Cheryl decided that she was going to promote me from assistant to trainer," Cash quipped. "She said, 'Listen, I can't handle an assistant like you. I can pay you what you're worth, but I can't afford to pay you what you think you're worth!' "
Evangeline Downs is going green for its 2009 season.
That's green as in turf racing as the 89-night spring-summer meeting that gets under way on April 8 will see the long-awaited debut of the seven-furlong grass course.
The new course will make an immediate impact on the stakes schedule, as four of the 24 stakes on tap have been moved from dirt to turf. In addition, the $100,000 Attaway Darbonne for Louisiana-breds has been added to the lucrative Louisiana Legends Night program on July 4.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Whenever he was asked who he was rooting for in a big race, the late great Joe Hirsch always had the same reply.
"The best story," Hirsch would say with a twinkle in his eye.
Well if Hirsch were here for Saturday's Sunshine Millions Classic, he would undoubtedly be rooting for Finallymadeit, who is lucky just to be alive let alone among the major contenders in the feature on the Sunshine Millions card.