Fonner Park in Grand Island, Neb., opens its 54th season of racing Friday as the live racing season in Nebraska gets off to a chilly start with a 38-day day meet that runs through May 5.
The opening weekend forecast was calling for temperatures in the low to mid-20's. That was reflected in opening day entries that saw 53 horses entered for the eight-race card.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - A big weekend featuring northern California's top 3-year-old stakes and top sprint race heads the schedule for the Bay Meadows spring meet, which opens Feb. 14.
Nine stakes worth $750,000 will be contested during the 10-week meet.
The Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby, traditionally an important steppingstone on the Triple Crown trail, will be held Saturday, March 10. The 1 1/16-mile race carries a $200,000 purse.
On March 11, the Grade 3 Bay Meadows Breeders' Cup Sprint, a six-furlong, $100,000 race, will be run.
NEW ORLEANS - On the downhill side of a one-week suspension handed to him for careless riding, leading Fair Grounds jockey Joe Talamo is champing at the bit, ready to swing back into action when his suspension is lifted Friday. And Talamo said Wednesday morning that when the Fair Grounds meet ends, he plans to leave his home state of Louisiana and try his luck under the bright lights of the Keeneland meet in April.
ALBANY, Calif. - Three-year-old fillies are in the spotlight Friday at Golden Gate Fields, as well as Saturday, when the $100,000 California Oaks will be run.
On Friday, less-seasoned fillies will compete in a first-level allowance race at six furlongs. Seven were entered, including the entry of Mattie Camp and Forest Huntress for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
Four of the seven runners have recorded only maiden victories: Smokin Danielle, Mattie Camp, Event of Siam, and Princess Mary. Of the four, only Smokin Danielle won at the current meet.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The days of competing against elite company are long behind Evening Attire, but apparently his desire to compete is not. Thus the 9-year-old gelding, who won the 2002 Jockey Club Gold Cup, returns to the races Friday in an optional claiming race at Aqueduct.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There is a strong chance that trainer John Sadler will be spending the first weekend of May at Churchill Downs. It will be largely unfamiliar territory.
Known for his success with sprinters and turf horses in recent years, Sadler's stable is loaded with promising 3-year-olds, particularly fillies. It could all lead to starters in the Kentucky Oaks or Kentucky Derby on May 4 and 5, and new milestones for the 50-year-old trainer.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Toby Keith leads a busy life as a top-selling country artist, the star of the motion picture "Broken Bridges," and the front man in a series of commercials for Ford. Yet he still finds time to be involved in his racing operation, which will be in the spotlight Saturday at Oaklawn Park when Rotary, a horse Keith co-owns with Arthur B. Hancock III, makes his stakes debut in the Grade 3, $100,000 Essex Handicap.
NEW ORLEANS - Hyte Regency was on the Triple Crown trail last year when he finished third behind Lawyer Ron as one of the favorites in the Risen Star Stakes, the final prep for the Louisiana Derby. On the eve of this year's Risen Star, Hyte Regency is on the comeback trail after being sidelined by injury for a year, running in Friday's feature race at Fair Grounds, a second-level optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles on the dirt.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Wind Water has won three consecutive starts, but the streak has not changed trainer Brian Koriner's opinion of what races best fit the 5-year-old gelding.
Wind Water's winning streak includes a $50,000 claimer on Sept. 30, the California Cup Starter Sprint Handicap in October, and an optional claimer at Bay Meadows on Dec. 13.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Semaphore Man looked good in the $50,000 King Cotton at Oaklawn Park the first time around. He looks even better in the race after was redrawn for Friday.
The King Cotton was canceled last week because of inclement weather, and for the second go-round it has picked up two new players in multiple stakes winners Rodeo's Castle and Celluloid Hero.