For the third straight year, Mountaineer Race Track has kept its stakes schedule completely intact.
All 28 stakes will be run in the same order and for the same purse values as in 2005 and 2006.
Nearly one-third of the stakes will be held on Saturday, Aug. 4, when nine stakes, highlighted by the Grade 3, $750,000 West Virginia Derby, are conducted on a special afternoon card that will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern. First post time for all other programs is 7 p.m.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Richard Mandella was giggling so hard he could hardly get the words out.
Last Sunday, Boboman, the winner of the Hollywood Turf Cup in December, worked five furlongs in company in 58.80 seconds, an uncharacteristically quick workout for a Mandella-trained runner. Boboman's next start, Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Handicap, was still six days away, but the 6-year-old horse seemed more than ready. The trainer could hardly contain himself.
"Wait until they see this dude," he said, cackling.
TORONTO, Ontario - It will be pretty much status quo for the stakes schedule at Stampede Park this season as 14 stakes, worth a total $800,000, will be offered over the course of the 50-day meeting in Calgary, Alberta, that starts March 23.
The $125,000 Alberta Derby, the meet's premier offering, will be run on June 16, with the $75,000 Penny Ridge, the second-richest stakes on the calendar, being the June 17 closing-day feature.
The other stakes are worth $50,000, although four will feature bonus money for Alberta-breds finishing in the top three.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Courtesy of an upset win in the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park in January, McCann's Mojave is currently the nation's leading money-winning horse, with earnings of $550,000.
Whether McCann's Mojave can keep that title past Saturday depends on how he fares in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap at Santa Anita.
Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla., canceled its Sunday and Monday cards after a tractor hit a sand pocket holding water from recent rain and dug into the track's new racing surface. The tractor hit a small part of the track that was almost completely sand before the races began on Sunday, and officials planned to have the surface entirely remixed by Wednesday.
Will Rogers opened its mixed meet last Saturday.
Will Rogers completed construction of its new track in February. The project encountered several weather-related delays after it was started in November.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The first two legs of the Strub Series for 4-year-olds were a disaster for Arson Squad. He was wiped out at the start of the seven-furlong Malibu on Dec. 26, got the wind knocked out of him, lost position, and finished eighth.
"He's lucky he survived," trainer Bruce Headley said.
The 1 1/16-mile San Fernando was only slightly better. Switching to Garrett Gomez, Arson Squad was shuffled off the pace, and rallied to fourth.
"It was a learning experience for Gomez to get to know my horses," Headley said. "They don't pull."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Ten years after campaigning the best horse he's ever owned, John Murphy may finally have found his next best one. And while Formal Gold took Murphy on a worldwide journey in 1997, one of Formal Gold's sons, Adore the Gold, could possibly take Murphy somewhere he's never been before - Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Street Sense has been pretty much out of sight and out of mind since unleashing that devastating stretch run in winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile nearly four months ago. But the way he worked five furlongs at Palm Meadows training center on Tuesday, he should not be forgotten.
On the surface, Street Sense's time of 1:00.21 may not appear all that special. It was the manner in which the son of Street Cry did it that so impressed the handful of onlookers, including his trainer, Carl Nafzger.
CHICAGO - Really, it shouldn't come as heart-stopping news: If you conduct winter horse racing in Chicago, winter might have something to say about how things develop. Hawthorne lost the last third of the third day of its winter-spring meet on Sunday, when snow, ice, and extremely wet conditions forced the halt of racing.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - High Heels, who is considered one of the top 3-year-old fillies at Oaklawn, worked six furlongs here Tuesday in preparation for the $100,000 Honeybee Stakes here March 16. The race is a prep for the Grade 2, $250,000 Fantasy on April 6.
In her last start Feb. 10, High Heels finished fifth in the Grade 3 Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds. Prior to that race, she was an eight-length allowance winner at Oaklawn on Jan. 21.
