Sunland Park's 12:55 p.m. post time, which started last week, will remain in effect through the remainder of the meet, as will 12-race programs.
In addition, the track has introduced 10-cent superfectas, which will be applied to all the races on the card.
Trainer Michelle Lovell likes a project, and when Wild Encounter came into her barn last year, she was eager to figure out the filly.
Suffice to say, Lovell found out what makes her tick. Wild Encounter has won 7 of 11 starts for the trainer, her latest a 2 1/2-length win in the $45,000 Jersey Village at Sam Houston Race Park on Feb. 10.
"When I got her, she was a maiden," said Lovell. "The owners were real patient and gave me enough time to do the things that I thought were good for her, and that filly has said thank you ever since."
The top breeders and Nebraska-bred performers of 2006 were recognized last Saturday night at the Midtown Holiday Inn in Grand Island, Neb., as the Nebraska Thoroughbred Breeders' Association held its annual awards banquet.
Older horse of the year honors went to King's Verse, a winner of $35,480 campaigning in Minnesota and Illinois for breeder Bluestem Farm, which owns the horse in partnership with Mac Robertson. He won 3 of 10 starts last year.
Racing at Beulah Park is slowly returning to normal after a series of winter storms in the central Ohio area wreaked havoc at the track over the past several weeks. Beulah was forced to cancel five of its 10 scheduled racing programs from Feb. 5 through Feb. 17 because of three separate snowstorms.
The days that Beulah was able to run during the period didn't go off without a hitch, either.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It wasn't too long ago that trainers were taking Alan Garcia off their horses in search of a more experienced rider. This winter, with several journeyman jockeys out of town or sidelined by injury, horsemen have been turning to the 21-year-old Garcia with regularity and could not be more pleased with the results.
First there was the National Jockey Club meet, the traditional spring opening of Chicago's racing season, which over time got pushed back into winter. Then, after a disastrous misadventure in auto racing, Sportsman's Park, the National Jockey Club's traditional home, wound up a pile of rubble, and the NJC moved to adjacent Hawthorne Race Course. But last year, with the NJC facing crippling issues, the Illinois Racing Board declined to grant the racing club racing dates. So much for tradition.
Louisiana Downs has created a prep race for the new $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and part of its 34-race, $3.4 million stakes schedule released Wednesday. The $200,000 Sunday Silence for 2-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on turf will be run on Sept. 22, on the undercard of the track's richest race, the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Mea Domina, the Grade 1-winning turf mare who finished fourth as the favorite in the Grade 2 Buena Vista Handicap on Monday, has been retired and will be bred this spring to Bernardini, trainer Ron McAnally said Wednesday.
Owned and bred by Janis Whitham, Mea Domina won seven races and $744,628 from 16 starts, and was always tough on the front end. Mea Domina scored her biggest wins setting the pace - the Grade 1 Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park, Grade 2 Palomar at Del Mar, and Grade 2 Las Palmas at Santa Anita. Tyler Baze was her regular rider.
The uncertainty surrounding whether Santa Anita planned to install a synthetic racing surface apparently ended Wednesday when the track's president, Ron Charles, announced that track owner Magna Entertainment Corp. will install a synthetic surface later this year.
In a prepared release, Charles said: "Installing a synthetic surface at Santa Anita is the right thing to do for our industry. We feel that it's important that horsemen in California and across the country are aware that we are going to install the new surface during the upcoming Del Mar meeting."
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Chris Richard signaled his intent to have a strong Oaklawn Park meet when he won the opening day stakes here with 15-1 shot Irish Dreamer, and since then the barn has kept right on rolling. Richard had a double here Monday, and has maintained a 43 percent win rate for much of the first month of racing at Oaklawn.