Charles Town Races has hired veteran official Randy Wehrman as racing secretary at the Charles Town, W.Va., track, effective May 1. Wehrman takes over a year-round position that has been filled by interim staff since Doug Lamp resigned in November.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The arrival of trainer Steve Asmussen and his stable have been the buzz of the backstretch in the weeks leading up to the opening of the 2008 meeting here Saturday.
And, according to Asmussen, who was assigned 30 stalls, his decision to locate a division at Woodbine was based on one simple premise.
"The money," said Asmussen, when asked what he had found particularly attractive about the local program.
For the second straight year, Churchill Downs will hold a public drawing for fans to purchase a limited number of seats to the Kentucky Derby. The track is selling 500 pairs of tickets, or 1,000 total, to the 134th Derby on May 3, as well as 210 pairs of tickets to the May 2 Kentucky Oaks.
The drawing will be held Saturday at 7 a.m. Eastern at the Louisville, Ky., track. Fans wishing to participate can begin assembling outside Gate 10 as early as 6 p.m. the previous day.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Tyler Baze's season has come alive with the start of the spring.
Baze rode 8 winners from 34 mounts from March 27 to Monday to vault past an absent David Flores into third-place in the jockey standings at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. Through Monday, Baze had won 43 races at the meeting, 20 fewer than leader Garrett Gomez.
"I had a good week in the last week," Baze said.
Saturday, Baze is hoping to pull an upset in one of the meeting's most important races, the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. An ominous forecast for Friday and early Saturday could create wet conditions for Saturdays Wood Memorial card at Aqueduct. But John Passero, New York Racing Associations director of racing surfaces, is hopeful the main track will be in good shape for the most important day of the meet.
According to Weather.com, as much as two inches of rain could fall between late Thursday night and Saturday morning. Passero said that according to the weather service NYRA uses, the worst-case scenario calls for about one inch of precipitation.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - As trainer Steve Asmussen rolls along the Kentucky Derby trail, he must feel like he has turned into the stretch with a 20-length lead. Not that Asmussen necessarily brings an edge to the 134th Derby - nobody does. But with all the incredible karma enveloping him, any further success might look like overkill to pretty much anybody else.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Heading into last year's Woodbine meeting, the racetrack itself was the center of attention.
Polytrack made its debut here on Aug. 30, 2006, and experienced problems as the year wore on, coming under particular fire in the closing stages of the meet.
But, after undergoing some changes in composition last spring and summer, the Polytrack finished up 2007 in good order and Woodbine has legitimate hopes that concern over the surface can become a thing of the past when this year's 167-day meeting begins on Saturday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine has not been prominent on the Breeders' Cup scene since it hosted the event in 1996, but that could change when the track stages six Win and You're In turf races during its 2008 meeting, which begins with a 10-race card Saturday.
PHOENIX Theres little doubt White Spar is one of the top Arizona-bred sprinters on dirt. The $40,000 Arizona Stallion Stakes at Turf Paradise on Saturday gives him the opportunity to expand his domain, as he tries turf for the first time. The race for 3-year-olds sired by Arizona-based stallions is slated at about 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf, and lured a field of seven.
Gattopardo's connections have their long-range sights on the Preakness. In order to get to the second leg of the Triple Crown, which will be run May 17 at Pimlico, Gattopardo must run well in Saturday's Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct.
Gattopardo, who has been first or second in all six career starts, had his final prep for the seven-furlong Bay Shore when he worked five furlongs in 58 seconds last Saturday at Laurel Park, and galloped out six furlongs in 1:10 and change. It was the fastest of 14 workouts at the distance that morning.