ARCADIA, Calif. - Big Booster, the former claimer who revived his career with third-place finishes in three graded stakes in the last year, finally secured a big race win in Sunday's $250,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita.
With a last-to-first move in the final three-eighths under jockey Rafael Bejarano, Big Booster ($16) swept past six rivals to win the Grade 2 race over about 1 3/4 miles in 2:45.50.
The oddity that is the six-day meet at Atlantic City Race Course begins on Wednesday with a six-race card of turf races.
Atlantic City will card six races a day, all on turf, for five other days, with live racing April 23-25 and April 30-May 2. The only people who will be able to bet on the races are those who are on the grounds. And there's no stabling at the track other than a receiving barn.
The highlight of the meet will be the $50,000 Tony Gatto Dream Big Stakes, the closing-day feature at five furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. - After a series of meetings with trainers and owners at Santa Anita on Sunday, Frank Stronach, whose Magna Entertainment owns the track, said he was leaning toward going with a synthetic surface at the track rather than replacing it with a dirt surface, according to several people at the meetings.
The situation remains in flux, though, according to Ron Charles, Santa Anita's president. On Monday, Charles said Santa Anita will do "a number of tests on the existing track."
OLDSMAR, Fla. - With jockey Daniel Centeno and trainer Jamie Ness rewriting the record books this season at Tampa Bay Downs, it's easy to overlook the fact that other jockeys and trainers have been quietly having good meetings in their own right.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. -The allure of the Triple Crown trail and the presence of J Be K have conspired to keep the field for Saturday's $150,000 Withers quite small. Though 40 3-year-olds were nominated to the Grade 3 Withers, Aqueduct's racing office may be scrambling to come up with a five- or six-horse field by Thursday's entry time.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With as many as five starters in lucrative stakes on Sunday, and a barn in outstanding form, trainer Barry Abrams cannot wait for the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting to start on Wednesday.
Abrams, 54, is on schedule to break personal records this year in purse earnings, with most of the success attributable to the progeny of Unusual Heat, a California-based stallion that he co-owns. At the Santa Anita meeting that ended on Sunday, Unusual Heat was the sire of 20 horses that won 26 races. Abrams saddled 13 of those winners.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, plagued by the cancellation of 11 racing days in January and early February because of main-track drainage problems, ended Sunday with declines in average daily attendance and ontrack handle, a slight decline in all-sources handle, and an increase in account-wagering handle. The meet began on Dec. 26, 2007.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Churchill Downs officials are listing at least 11 fillies, including the Larry Jones-trained duo of Proud Spell and Eight Belles, as prospective starters for the May 2 Kentucky Oaks.
Both Jones fillies breezed over the Keeneland Polytrack on Sunday and are scheduled to be shipped Friday to Churchill, where they will have their final prerace workouts this coming Sunday. Proud Spell went a leisurely half-mile in 50.20 seconds, while Eight Belles zipped the same distance in 46.60 seconds.
A little more than a week ago, Todd Pletcher was on the brink of not having a single starter in the Derby. But when Behindatthebar, ridden by David Flores, charged from far back Saturday to win the Grade 2 Coolmore Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, Pletcher suddenly had three candidates for the Derby.
