Mother Nature has put a crimp in Penn National Race Course's grand reopening plans.
Although the facility's new Hollywood Casino with 2,000 slot machines will open as scheduled at 10 a.m. Tuesday, a forecast that calls for snow, freezing rain, and wind chills that make the temperature feel as though it's in the single digits caused track officials on Monday afternoon to cancel Tuesday night's first live racing card of 2008.
Wild Encounter was prominent throughout for a neck win over Senora Tormenta in the $50,000 Jersey Village for Texas-bred fillies and mares at Sam Houston Race Park on Saturday night. It was another half-length back in third to Festive Rain.
Hollye Lynne finished fifth as the favorite.
Wild Encounter ($16.40) covered 1 1/16 miles on firm turf in 1:46.35. Richard Eramia rode the winner for Agave Racing Stable and trainer Michelle Lovell.
Phoenix apparently agrees with rider Jon Court, who shipped in from Southern California to sweep the two stakes on Saturday's card at Turf Paradise. Court captured the $100,000 Turf Paradise Derby for 3-year-olds aboard Nikki'sgoldensteed ($7). Just 20 minutes earlier, he guided Briecat ($7.20) to victory in the $75,000 Arizona Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.
ARCADIA, Calif. - In a curiously run race where horses, or jockeys, lacked patience, Double Trouble and jockey Rafael Bejarano were simpatico. They watched two of their rivals get rank early, and another make a premature move, then pounced with the last run to take the Grade 1, $245,000 Santa Maria Handicap, the first stakes run Saturday on Santa Anita's renovated synthetic surface.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A six-day delay in the running of the $250,000 San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita made all the difference for Well Armed.
Well Armed led throughout the rescheduled San Antonio, but trainer Eoin Harty doubted that the 5-year-old gelding would have won the Grade 2 race if it had been run on Feb. 3. But when the San Antonio was postponed because of wet weather, Harty's confidence soared. He thought Well Armed was a calmer horse a week later.
NEW ORLEANS - Before the Mineshaft Handicap on Saturday at Fair Grounds, Grasshopper's reputation was staked on his second-place finish to Street Sense in the Travers Stakes. Now, there is further proof that this is a horse to be reckoned with in the handicap division.
Making his first start since September, Grasshopper wowed the Fair Grounds crowd with a glitzy stretch move, splitting horses about three-sixteenths of a mile from the finish and going on to win the Grade 3, $150,000 Mineshaft by 2 1/2 lengths.
NEW ORLEANS - You could hear the skeptical rumblings in some quarters. Pyro was a nose away from still being a maiden. Pyro was clunking along, eating War Pass's dust last year. What had Pyro done, really, to rate his lofty ranking as a Kentucky Derby contender?
News flash: Pyro is for real.
Last at the top of the Fair Grounds stretch and trailing a very slow pace, Pyro passed all 10 of his rivals in about a quarter-mile and won the Grade 3, $300,000 Risen Star Stakes by two lengths.
The "other" Speedy Smithwick mare, La Perouse, was up in the final strides to snatch victory from a pair of favorites in the $50,000 Likely Exchange Stakes at Turfway Park.
Our Dancing Babe, the 3-1 third choice for Smithwick, was dueling in deep stretch with a California invader, Fun Logic, when La Perouse swept past them both with a torrid outside run to narrowly prevail. Fun Logic, the 5-2 favorite, finished second, a head behind the winner and another head before Our Dancing Babe. Rayona, the 5-2 second choice in a field of 11 fillies and mares, never threatened.
For the second straight week, a Florida shipper captured Laurel Park's featured stakes when heavily favored Throbbin' Heart ($2.80) drew clear by 1 3/4 lengths in the $56,800 Marshua for 3-year-old fillies.
A week earlier, Vanderkaay came up from Tampa Bay Downs to capture the Dancing Count for 3-year-olds.
