SAN MATEO, Calif. - After the madness surrounding the first leg of the Triple Play Race Series, a three-race series that offers inflated purses for claiming horses, Sunday's second leg should be relatively tame.
Thirteen ran in the two divisions of the March 16 first leg, which was for $10,000 claimers. A total of 88 claims were dropped for seven horses in the two races, resulting in 50 owners and trainers crowding together to watch the shake for each horse.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Fresh from a victory in the Grade 2 Arcadia Handicap last Saturday, Daytona will try for the second Grade 1 win of his career in the Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park on May 26.
Daytona has won 5 of his last 6 starts, all in stakes. He won the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Hollywood Park last November. This year, he has won 2 of 3 starts, including the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap at about 1 1/8 miles in February. His only loss of the current campaign was a third in the Mervin Muniz Jr. Handicap at Fair Grounds last month.
For the second consecutive year, Del Mar is offering the richest stakes schedule in its history. The track is offering 31 major stakes and 11 overnight stakes worth a total of $7.35 million for the upcoming meeting, which runs from July 16 to Sept. 3.
Last year's stakes program was worth $7.25 million.
The track has added a new race, the $150,000 Cougar II Handicap over 1 1/2 miles on the Polytrack surface on July 30. The race is designed to be a prep to the newly created $500,000 Breeders' Cup Dirt Marathon at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting in October.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Golden Yank worked a bullet five furlongs over the weekend as he prepares to defend his home turf against a host of shippers in the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby. The 1 1/8-mile race is expected to draw a full field of 14 horses when entries are taken on Thursday, with four starters from California arriving here Monday and four already having flown in Sunday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Pyro turned in his final major workout for the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes by breezing a half-mile under the cover of darkness early Monday at Keeneland, finishing in 50.60 seconds over the main Polytrack surface.
Pyro will be a solid favorite Saturday in the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass, a crucial Kentucky Derby prep race for which Keeneland officials are expecting a field of eight to 11.
]Trainer Joe Orseno capped off a dream day when his Mean Demand rallied to victory in Monday's eighth race at Gulfstream Park to give the veteran trainer his fifth victory on the card.
Orseno swept the first three races on Monday's nine-race program with Royal Goliath, Wyatt's Appeal, and Wild Ones Event. Wyatt's Appeal was part of an entry in the second event with stablemate Reata's Tsavo. Orseno continued his streak with the favorite Collie Z. in the sixth race before completing his five-bagger with Mean Demand.
OLDSMAR, Fla. For handicappers, the three main-track races among the six stakes on Florida Cup Day Saturday were notable for the intense speed bias of the racetrack. Not one runner who led into the stretch of those races, all sprints, lost on a track that has been kinder to speed runners than usual this meeting.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Barclay Tagg was quite confident he had a Kentucky Derby horse in Tale of Ekati. Any lingering doubts were erased after the colt rallied past War Pass to win Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
While the final time of 1:52.35 was the slowest Wood since 1952, Aqueduct's main track was a heavy, drying out surface. Moreover, Tale of Ekati was making just his second start of the year. In his first, he finished sixth in the Louisiana Derby following a troubled start.