GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Willow O Wisp has been purchased out of Southern California with an eye toward the turf stakes in this region, and his first local appearance will come Saturday in the $50,000 Bob Johnson Memorial at Lone Star Park.
Nathan Wallis is the new trainer of Willow O Wisp, who was a private purchase by his brother, Brian Wallis. The deal closed about six weeks ago, and the horse has settled in at Lone Star.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Just the presence of Whatsthescript in Sunday's $400,000 Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar is a reason for owners Tom and Debbie Stull to celebrate.
The Irish-bred colt has won three stakes in the last two years, but there have been just as many phone calls with disappointing news about his health. Once, it was back problems. Then, foot problems arose that kept him sidelined.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Eoin Harty has traveled to the United Arab Emirates many times, first as an assistant to Bob Baffert to plunder the Dubai World Cup, and then as a private trainer for Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin Racing. The experience has taught him valuable lessons on how to prepare a horse to ship and race in Dubai, and what to do afterwards.
"It's like going to a casino in Las Vegas," Harty said Tuesday morning. "You're on a moving walkway going in. You get the royal treatment. But it's every man for himself coming out.
Trainer Wes Hawley has made some key equipment changes with Steamy Ridge, changes that have helped her recapture her best form this meet at Louisiana Downs. Saturday, she will be looking for her second stakes win on the season when she starts in the $75,000 Hallowed Dreams Breeders' Cup.
The 6 1/2-furlong race is for fillies and mares, and it is the richest of four stakes on the card worth a cumulative $225,000.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The $100,000 Scotzanna, a new overnight stakes, might have been expected to be not much more than a rare fillip on an otherwise sleepy Friday afternoon.
But that all changed on Tuesday when Sugar Swirl, a multiple graded stakes winner, turned up in the entry box for the six-furlong Scotzanna for Ontario-foaled fillies and mares.
AUBURN, Wash. On the evidence of Sundays Angie C. Stakes at Emerald Downs, it appears that trainer Frank Lucarelli has a bunch of promising 2-year-old fillies in his barn and that trainer Doris Harwood has one that could truly be special.
Lucarelli entered four horses in the six-furlong Angie C., but scratched most highly regarded of the quartet, Owhatablast. The other three ran second (All the Rage at 27-1), third (Light of a Star at 43-1), and fourth (Shes a Sweetie at 27-1) to complete a superfecta worth $3,240.
MIAMI - Trainers Myra Mora and Brian Pritchard didn't win any of the four graded stakes on last Saturday's Summit of Speed card. But both came close enough to be all smiles at the end of the marquee event on the Calder schedule.
Mora was ecstatic over the performance of Gentleman James, who finished second for the second time in less than a month to his nemesis Golden Spikes in the Grade 2 Carry Back Stakes.
Luke Kruytbosch, the announcer at Churchill Downs, Turf Paradise, and Ellis Park who was found dead Monday morning in his Evansville, Ind., apartment, will be memorialized in a service at Ellis Park when racing resumes there Wednesday.
Ellis Parks director of operations, Bob Jackson, said the track is still working out the details of the service, but tentative plans call for it to begin before the first race, maybe five minutes to 12 and last for about 10 or 15 minutes, said Jackson.
Lee Wagner, who owned and operated the popular Wagner's pharmacy and 1950s-style eatery just outside the Churchill Downs stable gate, died Saturday at age 70 in hospice care in Louisville, Ky., after suffering from diabetes.
Wagner, a pharmacist and occasional horse owner, befriended innumerable horsemen from the United States and beyond. His place of business is filled with autographed Kentucky Derby memorabilia.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hollywood Park failed to keep pace with a record 2007 spring-summer meeting this year, showing a decline of nearly 2 percent in all-sources handle at the corresponding meeting that ended on Sunday, according to preliminary figures.
The track announced that the 60-day meeting had an average all-sources handle of $11,783,585, which included ontrack wagering, inter-track wagering in California, account wagering, and handle from interstate locations. The average handle was down 1.8 percent over the record handle of $11.9 million in 2007.