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.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Shes All Eltish, upset winner of the Grade 2 Bonnie Miss Stakes here earlier in the session, is on her way to the Oaks. Not the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, but the Grade 3, $200,000 Calder Oaks, to be decided at 1 1/8 miles over the turf on April 26.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Dante Zanelli Jr. and his father are Peruvian trainers with an obscure claim to fame in American racing: They mentored Rafael Bejarano. Now the Zanellis would like to make a far greater impression with a colt named Tomcito, one of the contenders Saturday in the Grade 2, $325,000 Coolmore Lexington Stakes at Keeneland.
ARCADIA, Calif.-A mix of favorites and a few outsiders led to a pick-six payoff of $146,744 to five ticketholders at Santa Anita on Monday, a program that began with a carryover of $176,150.
Bettors added $997,461 to the pool on Monday, and many tickets were knocked out of contention after the first leg, which was won by Kailee Rush ($33). The other winners of the pick-six races were Silent Kitten ($6.80), Secret Shuttle ($7.60), Robscarvic ($42.80), Street Boss ($5.80), and Rail Dancer ($5.80).
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Golden Dawn was so dominant winning the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel on Feb. 16 that no one would have quibbled had her connections opted to run her back in the Grade 2 Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct on March 22.
But trainer Mike Hushion knew that wouldn't be the prudent thing to do and did not even nominate for that race, opting instead to point to this Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 Bed o' Roses Handicap over Aqueduct's main track. The Bed o' Roses, like the Fritchie, is at seven furlongs.