INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting began on Wednesday with a touch of drama.
In the first race of the meeting, Seismometer, the 7-5 favorite, won a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds at 4 1/2 furlongs, but was disqualified and placed last in the field of five for causing interference shortly after the start.
Then, as the field returned to be unsaddled, Fil's Regent unseated jockey Paul Atkinson, who escaped injury. Fil's Regent was quickly caught by racetrack staff.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Howard Belvoir said that Wasserman, who beat a stakes-quality field in the opening-night allowance feature last Friday at Emerald Downs, will wheel right back in the $50,000 Seattle Handicap at six furlongs on May 4.
"It's a little quicker back than I might have wanted, but he is a sound horse and he is very fit," Belvoir said. "I don't think it will take him long to bounce back from the race he ran on Friday."
Belvoir said he began legging Wasserman up for his current campaign the first of the year at Golden Gate.
STICKNEY, Ill. - If one has regularly watched horseracing in Chicago for, oh, say, the last 40 years, the name Joseph Broussard may well ring a bell. After all, Broussard, 67, has been training horses in these parts since 1970.
"First horse I ran in Chicago," Broussard said, "was at Washington Park, horse named Ivan Pine. Earlie Fires rode him and he won. I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I can remember things like that."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Nick Gonzalez express continued its early-season roll here at Woodbine last Sunday when My List became the trainer's third stakes winner in as many weekends
Shilla had captured the opening-day La Voyageuse as the strong second favorite, and Stuck in Traffic struck a week later at odds-on in the Achievement.
My List, however, was expected to have her work cut out for her in facing fellow 4-year-old Bear Now, a Grade 2 stakes winner of four races and $769,750 in her last campaign.
Peppers Pride will face eight rivals at SunRay Park on Saturday, when she attempts to tie North America's modern mark for consecutive wins, 16, in the $75,000 Russell and Helen Foutz Distaff Handicap. Entries for the race were taken Wednesday morning at the Farmington, N.M., track. Peppers Pride drew post 7 for the 6 1/2-furlong stakes that will be run around two turns on the six-furlong oval at SunRay.
"I'd like to have been closer to the inside on that particular racetrack," said Joel Marr, who trains Peppers Pride and has given the mount to Carlos Madeira.
Physician Dawn Brokaw signed on to be Turf Paradise's doctor in residence five months ago, the goal being to deliver the best possible free health care service to the track's horsemen and grooms.
Brokaw feels the project has been a success, and in fact the clinic has surpassed her expectations.
"We've taken care of hundreds of backstretch people since our first patient Nov. 17," she said. "The program is more successful than I had hoped."
The program is jointly sponsored by the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and the racetrack.
Jockey Alejandro Medellin ventured from old Mexico to New Mexico for a long weekend and won with 10 of his 20 SunRay Park mounts, including five victories on Sunday. Medillin left for Las Americas Racetrack in his homeland, where he will ride this weekend. It is uncertain if he will return to SunRay.
The meet, which opened last Friday, offers 10 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse races a day. The meet got under way 13 minutes late when Strawfly Kid dumped his rider, Brian Theriot, and ran loose for several minutes.
Retama Park near San Antonio will open a 21-date Quarter Horse meet on Friday night with six trial races for the Grade 3, $25,000-added Ford Texas Juvenile Challenge. The finale is scheduled for May 10. Retama's meet will run through June 22.
Retama will race on Friday and Saturday nights until June, when it adds Sunday night programs. The 14-race stakes schedule is highlighted by the Grade 1, $75,000-added Retama Park Futurity. The 350-yard race for 2-year-olds will be run on June 22. Trials for the race are June 8.