ARCADIA, Calif. - From trainer Paulo Lobos's perspective, Immortelle should be starting in Saturday's $200,000 Santa Barbara Handicap at Santa Anita as the winner of the Santa Ana Handicap last month.
Lobo is still a little steamed that Immortelle was not promoted from second to first after she was bumped near the finish of the Santa Ana by race winner Costume. The two made contact in the final strides, and Immortelle was beaten only a neck in a thrilling finish.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - With his chances to make the Kentucky Derby field virtually impossible, Giant Moon began preparing for a different stakes race Wednesday when he worked five furlongs in 1:00.10 over Belmont Park's main track.
It was Giant Moon's first breeze since he finished fourth, beaten two lengths, in the Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial on April 5. Giant Moon, a New York-bred son of Giant's Causeway, worked in company with the 4-year-old New York-bred Hammock, who bested Giant Moon in the move as he was timed in 59.88 seconds, the fastest of the morning.
AUBURN, Wash. - Emerald Downs will open its 13th season Friday with an eight-race card headed by a stakes-quality field of six in the day's feature, a 5 1/2-furlong allowance test for older sprinters.
The 2008 meeting will stretch 91 days through Sept. 28, with first post set for 6 p.m. on weekdays and 2 p.m. on weekends and holidays.
SAN MATEO, Calif. Trainer Gordon Wells isnt sure just how good Watch Me Win is, but he knows shes popular. He claimed her for $20,000 in her last start March 20 after trainer Billy Morey had claimed her for the same price in her previous start.
Watch Me Win will not be claimed Friday, when Wells runs her in a $25,000 optional claimer for fillies and mares at one mile, the fourth race Friday at Bay Meadows. She is one of the four runners in the field of seven running for the allowance condition.
CALGARY Alberta - Sassy Sarah makes her third start of the young season in Friday's featured seventh race, a six-furlong allowance sprint with a $40,000 claiming option that attracted a solid field of nine fillies and mares.
Although Sassy Sarah has disappointed her backers as the odds-on choice twice this meet, she nevertheless turned in solid efforts to finish second and figures to be favored once again.
Fair Grounds plans to expand its racing meet by two weeks next season and begin it prior to Thanksgiving for the first time in nearly 30 years, according to a track release Tuesday.
The 2008-09 racing season at Fair Grounds, its 137th, will begin on Friday, Nov. 14, the earliest starting date on record. The 87-day meet will continue through March 29, 2009. The meet had traditionally begun on Thanksgiving.
Fair Grounds submitted its racing calendar to the Louisiana State Racing Commission on Tuesday, and the commission will consider it for approval at its meeting on Friday.
STICKNEY, Ill. - The winter was icy cold, the spring so far been about nonexistent, but those thin patches of grass covering the Hawthorne
turf course will nevertheless be put to use for the first time in 2008 on Thursday. The nine-race Hawthorne program includes a pair of grass races, the first of the year in Chicago.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A lack of graded stakes earnings will keep Yankee Bravo out of the Kentucky Derby, but he remains a candidate for the $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 17, trainer Paddy Gallagher said this week.
Yankee Bravo finished fourth behind Colonel John in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 5, a loss that essentially ended his chances for a Kentucky Derby start. Yankee Bravo has earned $105,000 in graded stakes, which leaves him well shy of a guaranteed berth.
Coyoteshighestcall extended his winning streak to six races with a decisive three-length score in Tuesday's $75,000 Norristown Stakes at Philadelphia Park.
Since he was claimed for $25,000 by trainer Scott Lake on behalf of owner Robert Cole Jr. last September, the 6-year-old Coyoteshighestcall has won 8 of 10 starts, including five this season at four different racetracks. The Norristown was his first stakes victory.