Keeneland Race Course ended its 16-day spring meet Friday with daily average all-sources handle down 11 percent from the corresponding 2007 meet.
Although the estimated gross all-sources handle of $150.5 million was the second-highest in track history, behind only the $158.4 million handled last year, there was an additional day of racing this year at the Lexington, Ky., track.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland concluded its 16-day spring meet Friday without a single winning favorite in any of the pick six races that closed out the program, as Dancing Forever surged to victory under Rene Douglas in the feature race, the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes.
STICKNEY, Ill. - The first race on Friday's racing program at Hawthorne was delayed nearly two hours as jockeys, trying to raise the base mount fee paid to riders in Chicago, declined to participate. The day's first race, scheduled for 3 p.m. Central, eventually went off at about 4:55, but only after four of the seven horses left the paddock and went back to their barns, causing them to be scratched.
"We're going to do everything we can today to finish the races," said Jim Miller, Hawthorne's assistant general manager.
Sunland Park closed out its 77-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses on Tuesday with a 5.5 percent increase in average daily handle, and attendance figures on par with the corresponding 79-date meet a year ago. Sunland, the New Mexico track and slots casino located near El Paso, Texas, opened its race meet on Dec. 12.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Call the Posse is one of several promising Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies in trainer Josie Carroll's barn.
On Sunday, Call the Posse will attempt to get off to a good start on the trail to the June 8 Woodbine Oaks when she faces six rivals in the $150,000 Fury.
Call the Posse makes her seasonal debut in the Fury, a seven-furlong race for Ontario-foaled 3-year-old fillies that has been an important stepping-stone to the 1 1/8-mile Woodbine Oaks.
"I think she ran very well on the synthetic track here last year," said Carroll.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It has been nine years since an Ashland Stakes winner has won the Kentucky Oaks, but the connections of Little Belle believe the dramatically improved filly stands a solid chance when the 134th Oaks is run Friday at Churchill Downs.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - True Metropolitan is slated to make his 2008 debut in the $50,000 George Royal Stakes at Hastings next Sunday. Trained by Terry Jordan, True Metropolitan won 7 of 10 starts last year and for the second straight year won a Sovereign Award for being the best handicap horse in Canada.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Force Freeze is headed to Maryland after running the fastest six furlongs of the young Lone Star Park meet on Thursday night. The speedster, who is 3, will make his graded stakes debut at Pimlico in the Grade 3, $100,000 Hirsch Jacobs at six furlongs on the Preakness Stakes undercard May 17.
"We'll try to fly him out four days before the race," said Allen Milligan, who trains Force Freeze.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The key to conquering Sunday's $1 million guaranteed pick six at Hollywood Park is negotiating through the four maiden special weight and allowance races, which have drawn big fields.
But finding a reliable key selection in the pick-six sequence may be difficult.
The pick six covers the fifth through 10th races on the 10-race California Gold Rush program for statebreds. The four non-stakes in the sequence offer lucrative $60,000 purses for maidens and $70,000 allowance race purses.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Had things gone according to plan this winter and spring, Rajiv Maragh would be looking forward to the start of the Monmouth Park meet on May 9. But since things went better than planned, Maragh is now looking forward to Wednesday's opening of the Belmont Park season.
Maragh, a native of Jamaica who grew up in south Florida, did so well riding at Aqueduct full time for the first time that he now plans to make New York his permanent home.