The $150,000 Lee Berwick Futurity on July 14 will be the richest of 33 Quarter Horse stakes to be run this summer at Delta Downs. The track's 52-date meet for Quarter Horses will open on April 19 and run through July 15.
The Berwick is a restricted Grade 1 race for 2-year-olds at 350 yards. Another top race during the season is the Grade 2, $80,000 Bank of America East Challenge Championship. The 440-yard race, for 3-year-olds and up, is the richest of six stakes to be run on May 19.
Several Southern Californians have March 18 and Sunland Park circled on their calendar.
Trainer Bob Baffert will reportedly send San Vicente Stakes runner-up Law Breaker to Sunland that day for the $600,000 WinStar Derby. Baffert dominated last year's WinStar Derby with the one-two finishers Wanna Runner and Sky Diving. Southern California-based Aaron Gryder is expected to ride Law Breaker.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Nobiz Like Shobiz returned to the track on Wednesday for the first time since finishing third as the favorite in Saturday's Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
"He came out of the race just fine," said assistant trainer Robin Smullen, who was aboard Nobiz Like Shobiz on Wednesday. "He just jogged this morning and will start back galloping [Thursday]."
Nobiz Like Shobiz could begin training in blinkers as early as Thursday morning, Smullen said.
NEW ORLEANS - Master Command won the Mineshaft Handicap last time out with an easy lead that he never relinquished. He will be heavily favored to repeat that performance Saturday in the Grade 2, $500,000 New Orleans Handicap, but he is likely to find some company on the front end in Good and Lucky, who has two handy runaway scores in the slop at this Fair Grounds meet.
"It's a tough race, but he's done nothing wrong on this racetrack," said Good and Lucky's trainer, Josie Carroll, "so I thought it was time to step up and take a shot."
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Flying First Class, the 3-year-old who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 107 for his maiden win last month at Oaklawn Park, indicated his readiness for next week's Grade 3, $300,000 Rebel Stakes with a major workout here Wednesday.
Flying First Class breezed six furlongs in a bullet 1:12.17, while working in company under exercise rider Leigh Bentley. He broke off about five lengths behind workmate Out of Aces at the 5 1/2-furlong pole, and moved within two lengths of him by the half-mile pole.
SAN MATEO, Calif. Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has three entrants for Saturdays Grade?3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby, a race that has been a key to several of Hollendorfers Kentucky Derby-bound 3-year-olds.
Hollendorfers trio in the 1 1/16-mile El Camino Real are: California Derby winner Bwana Bull, his top Derby candidate; Candys Bro, who is getting a second chance around two turns; and Brave Sun, who has won three straight starts since Hollendorfer claimed him for $32,000 from a Hollywood Park maiden race on Nov. 18.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The odds were stacked against veteran jockey Jorge Chavez when he relocated to California last summer. In one way, the odds have changed very little this winter at Santa Anita, where in Chavez's first 115 mounts he had only two favorites.
"Whether it's the favorite or not, I just ride to win," he said Tuesday during morning workouts. The approach is working; Chavez has been the surprise of the meet. He entered the week seventh in the jockey standings with 19 wins. His mounts have generated a gaudy $3.84 return per $2 win bet.
NEW ORLEANS - While all the post-race attention in the roughly run Risen Star Stakes last month at Fair Grounds rightly focused on Circular Quay, who was the 6-5 favorite in that race, Slew's Tizzy had as bad a trip. If not worse.
Like Circular Quay, Slew's Tizzy was cruising toward the leaders when disaster struck. Slew's Tizzy clipped heels and dislodged his rider, James Graham. They were right in front of Circular Quay, who had to check severely and almost came to a stop.
It was some 20 years ago that Ray Cottrell, a gravelly voiced car dealer in Brandenburg, Ky., put his faith - to say nothing of his hard-earned capital - in the hands of a young, unproven Kentucky horseman named Ken McPeek. There are far worse investment strategies.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Hard Spun will likely pass the Grade 3, $300,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 17 in favor of the Grade 2, $500,000 Lane's End at Turfway Park on March 24, his trainer, Larry Jones, said on Tuesday.
Jones said he doesn't think Hard Spun is handling the racing surface at Oaklawn. He discussed the matter with owner Rick Porter after Hard Spun worked a half-mile in 50 seconds here Monday. Before committing to the Lane's End, Jones wants to make sure Hard spun has enough earnings to be guaranteed a spot in the starting gate.