NEW ORLEANS - Any doubts about whether Baghdaria would run in Saturday's Grade 3 Bayou Breeders' Cup Handicap at Fair Grounds were dispelled when trainer Tom Amoss sent her out for a six-furlong workout Friday morning. Baghdaria moved a step closer to her first start since the Breeders' Cup Distaff with a 1:13.40 breeze.
"I was very happy with it," Amoss said Friday. "Obviously I'm not going to run her tomorrow. We'll keep looking at options for her, including races at Oaklawn and Delta."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Barclay Tagg had some concerns about working his Kentucky Derby prospect Nobiz Like Shobiz as scheduled on Friday after watching any number of horses drill half-miles in 46 seconds and five-eighths in 59 here since Wednesday morning. And if Tagg had to postpone the important work, there was a good chance he would also postpone Nobiz Like Shobiz's second start of the year from next Saturday's Grade 2 Fountain of Youth to the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds one week later.
PORTLAND, Ore. - With the exception of the Lynn Homer-trained Derby Rider, who was recently claimed for $16,000 at Golden Gate, the cast for Sunday's 40th running of the Portland Meadows Mile has a familiar look.
That's just fine with trainer Delmer Webb, who will shoot for his third Portland Meadows Mile when he sends out Tom Two.
Hollywood Park has moved the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup forward by two weeks for its 2007 spring-summer meeting, and will continue a theme from past years of offering multiple graded stakes on the same day. Hollywood will offer $8.7 million in stakes purses during the meeting, which begins April 25 and and ends July 15.
The Grade 1 Gold Cup, the richest race of the meeting for older horses, will be run on June 30 as part of a program that features two other stakes, including the $250,000 American Handicap on turf.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Flying First Class put up the highest Beyer Speed Figure for a 3-year-old this year when he won a maiden race at Oaklawn Park on Monday with a 107. He won the six-furlong race by eight lengths in 1:09.92, in what was his second career start. Flying First Class is now being pointed for the Grade 3, $300,000 Rebel Stakes here on March 17, said his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas.
Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla., is poised for significant growth when it opens its 42-day mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses on Saturday. The track's simulcast network has grown dramatically since the same meet a year ago, and response to its richer racing program and renovated racing surface has led to an oversubscribed stable area.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The stretch rally that carried Molengao to a narrow win in the Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 4 has left trainer Paulo Lobo eager to run the horse in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 3.
Since last summer, when Molengao finished second in the Grade 2 Sunset Breeders' Cup Handicap over 1 1/2 miles on turf, Lobo has been wanting to try the 6-year-old in long races on dirt.
The Santa Anita Handicap over 1o1/4 miles on the main track is the first opportunity.
"I love the mile and a quarter," Lobo said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - English Channel's twice-delayed 2007 debut proved more than worth the wait after the Eclipse Award finalist set a course record in an allowance race here Thursday.
Ridden by John Velazquez, English Channel settled just off the pace of Mending Fences. He collared the game but overmatched leader to win by 1 1/4 lengths. English Channel's final time of 1:44.51 eclipsed the 1 1/8-mile course record by 0.18 of a second, and came within 0.59 second of the world record, set by Kostroma at Santa Anita in 1991.
NEW ORLEANS - Saturday's Fair Grounds program includes several interesting races on the Bayou Breeders' Cup undercard. A first-level turf allowance sprint has attracted the French import Polysheba, who will be making her first start since arriving at Mike Stidham's barn for this meet.
Polysheba, 4, began her career with three third-place finishes for trainer Andre Fabre before she won her maiden in her last start as a 2-year-old. She raced seven times in France at 3, finishing second twice and third once, before owners Alain and Gerard Wertheimer sent her to Stidham.
The $2 million Summit of Speed, which in a few short years has grown into one of the premier stakes days on the national racing calendar, will again highlight the 2007 Calder and Tropical at Calder stakes schedules. There are 70 stakes races on the schedule, worth nearly $10 million, and 17 are graded, topped by the Grade 1 Princess Rooney Handicap. The Calder meet opens April 25.
The Summit of Speed - which consists of eight sprint stakes, topped by the $500,000 Princess Rooney and Grade 2 Smile Sprint handicaps - has been moved up one week to Julyo7.