MIAMI - The starting gate is a busy place in the morning during the spring and summer months at Calder with so many 2-year-olds on the grounds gearing up for their career debuts.
But sprinkled in among all the young horses and new shooters at the barrier this past Saturday morning were two of the top 3-year-olds on the grounds, Green Vegas and Hal's My Hope. Both continued preparations for upcoming assignments by working from the gate over a wet-fast racetrack.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Bill Mott lobbied owner Charlotte Weber to keep My Typhoon in training for her 5-year-old season, believing the mare had yet to reach her full potential.
Thus far, Mott has looked like a genius. My Typhoon ($9.10) won her second consecutive Grade 2 stakes Saturday, taking the $300,000 Just a Game Breeders' Cup Handicap by 3 3/4 lengths over odds-on favorite Wait a While. In winning her eighth race from 18 starts, My Typhoon, an Irish-bred daughter of Giant's Causeway, surpassed the $1 million plateau in earnings.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - All I Can Get, the top juvenile male in Michigan last year, heads a field of 10 3-year-old colts and geldings in the $50,000-guaranteed Lansing Stakes at Great Lakes Downs on Tuesday.
The Lansing, at six furlongs, is the sixth of nine races on the card, which begins at 5:10 p.m.
All I Can Get is owned by his breeder, Michael McQuade, and trained by Gerald Bennett. Mary Doser, the leading jockey at the meet, will ride All I Can Get as she did for all his races at Great Lakes Downs last year.
MIAMI - Two overnight stakes with potential Summit of Speed implications, the $50,000 Ema Bovary and the $50,000 Heckofaralph, share top billing at Calder on Sunday.
The Ema Bovary is at six furlongs for fillies and mares, the same conditions as the Grade 1, $500,000 Princess Rooney Handicap, which is the co-highlight - along with the $500,000 Smile Sprint Handicap - of the $2 million Summit of Speed card on July 7.
The Ema Bovary attracted a field of nine, led by Stolen Prayer, A Sea Trippi, and Rgirldoesn'tbluff.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Joe Talamo, the apprentice jockey dueling for the riding title at Hollywood Park, is 17 years old, could pass for 15 and carries himself as if he is going on 25. He's riding like a veteran, too.
Talamo, and his ever-present smile, are everywhere at Hollywood Park these days - in the stables most morning visiting trainers, shaking hands with owners in the paddock in the afternoon, and, increasingly, in the winner's circle.
Venomous, who in the last few months has asserted himself as one of the best sprinters in the region, and Comalagold, who in the next few months could become the all-time leading earner among Alabama-breds, each turned in stirring allowance wins recently at Louisiana Downs. Those victories have set them up nicely for separate stakes engagements here June 23.
Venomous punched his ticket to the $50,000 Temperence Hill when he won a 5 1/2-furlong allowance by 6 1/4 lengths June 1. He stalked the pace, then simply overpowered his rivals in the stretch, earning a Beyer Figure of 99.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Dave Cotey will take two shots at Sunday's $125,000 Victoria Park Stakes at Woodbine when he runs Strike Impact and Angel of the House in the nine-furlong event for 3-year-olds.
Strike Impact showed some promise at 2, but was a disappointment in his first three starts this year. He finished 13 lengths back in his penultimate race, a dull effort that Cotey attributed to an illness.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - The Stonerside Stable operation of Texas residents Bob and Janice McNair has accounted for some notable Lone Star Park winners this meet. The first was Bob and John, who captured last month's Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Park Handicap. The latest is Spark Plug.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Doris Harwood began this meeting with nine stakes wins at Emerald Downs, and she has already added three more. The 3-year-old filly Shampoo won the U.S. Bank Stakes and the Federal Way Handicap, and Dinner at Arlene's won the Hastings Park Handicap for fillies and mares.
Harwood also trains Liberty for Al, who could make some noise in the route stakes for 3-year-olds, and a passel of well-bred 2-year-olds headed by the impressive maiden special weight winner Smarty Deb, who the trainer feels has the potential to be the best horse she has ever trained.
The top three finishers from last November's Norman Hall Stakes are entered in the $45,000 Rise Jim Stakes for 3-year-olds at Suffolk Downs.
Disco Fox outkicked Fifty Seven G and Senor St. Pat last fall in the Norman Hall to take top 2-year-old honors in the region. On Sunday, Senor St. Pat - and perhaps Fifty Seven G - appears ready to get a measure of revenge in the Rise Jim, a six-furlong statebred contest.
Disco Fox and Fifty Seven G are trained by Karl Grusmark, and he said Fifty Seven G will likely be scratched unless an off track culls the field.