The Leonard Richards Stakes, one of five graded races at Delaware Park, has been renamed the Barbaro Stakes.
The Grade 3, $300,000 Barbaro for 3-year-olds, one of seven stakes that will be run during Delaware Handicap weekend July 14-15, is the most significant change on the 2007 stakes calendar. Renaming the Richards in honor of Barbaro was the suggestion of Izzy Trejo, the track's new racing secretary.
CHICAGO - Is this the beginning of the Bobby Ranwick Jr. era at Hawthorne Race Course? Quite possibly not, since Mr. Ranwick started all of 33 horses during the entire 2006 season, and posted just three wins all year. So, how weird is it that the Ranwick stable, which does not regularly race in Chicago, has horses for four of the nine races on Saturday's card?
ARCADIA, Calif. - Just two starts into her career, Tiz Elemental seems to handle anything that trainer Carla Gaines tries.
She won her debut on the hillside turf course on Dec. 31 and was beaten a nose in the Sunshine Millions Oaks on Jan. 27, her first start on dirt.
Tiz Elemental will return to turf for Saturday's $90,000 China Doll Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. The mile race will be her stakes debut against open company and has drawn a strong field.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The Fountain of Youth and Hutcheson stakes aren't the only 3-year-old races on Saturday's Gulfstream Park program that could yield a contender or two for the Kentucky Derby.
Racing secretary Dave Bailey has also carded a pair of entry-level allowance races, one at 7 1/2 furlongs and a second at 1 1/8 miles, along with two maiden special weight races, at seven furlongs and nine furlongs, for 3-year-olds on Saturday's outstanding 11-race card.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Potra Clasica, who has been knocking heads with graded stakes rivals in her last two races, may find the competition a bit more palatable at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday when she heads a field of 10 fillies and mares in the $60,000 Wayward Lass Stakes.
The Argentine-bred Potra Clasica will be seeking her eighth win from 21 starts in the 1 1/16-mile Wayward Lass. Jose Lezcano rides Potra Clasica, the 120-pound highweight.
NEW ORLEANS - Trainer James Hodges is approaching Saturday's $75,000 Dixie Poker Ace at Fair Grounds like a Texas hold 'em player with a pair of aces in his hand and another showing. The best Louisiana-bred older turf horses have been pointing toward this mile race ever since Louisiana Champions Day in December. Hodges entered two of the first four finishers in the Louisiana Champions Turf - Chip Hunter and Diggy Fresh - in the Dixie Poker Ace. He also entered Tommy's Turn, who runs as part of a coupled entry with Chip Hunter, for the Keep Moving Stable.
ARCADIA, Calif. There is a pick six carryover of $115,324 at Santa Anita on Thursday after a series of longshots won on Wednesday.
Thursday's pick six covers the third through eighth races, the final six races of the day.
The pick six races comprise two turf races, three sprints on dirt and one race over a mile on dirt.
Here is a glance at the pick six races.
The way veteran trainer Bernie Flint talked last year - and the way his horse ran - a racing fan might have expected that Unbridled Express would wind up on the Triple Crown Trail this winter and spring - and he still might.
Unbridled Express hasn't raced since last Sept. 4, when he finished third behind Circular Quay and Scat Daddy in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, but Unbridled Express finally has returned to the racetrack. He posted his first published work last week at Fair Grounds, going an easy three furlongs in 37.80 seconds on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Mired in a monthlong slump, Alex Solis went rummaging through his garage last month, seeking inspiration. He dug out old videotapes of stakes wins aboard such familiar names as Bertrando, Kona Gold, Malek, Megahertz, and Pleasantly Perfect, a personal list of highlights.
Sitting in front of his television, Solis thought to himself that the list was not complete; more names were needed.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Bob Holthus broke out of a surprising Oaklawn Park slump last week with three winners. He sent out Prayer Service to upset the comebacking Steppenwolfer in an allowance last Friday, and also won maiden races with the 3-year-old colts Next Adventure and Pro Thunder.
Holthus had been 1ofor 37 going into last week's races, a rare slow start for the man who has won a record nine titles here at Oaklawn. He is now 4 for 47 to rank among the top 10 trainers at the track, and his stable earnings of $248,750 rank third among all trainers at Oaklawn.