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.
It wasn't just the fact that Corrupt won the Mardi Gras Stakes on Monday at Fair Grounds by two lengths, running his career record to 3-3. It was the fact that about 300 yards from the finish, second-last in an eight-horse field and apparently running in place, Corrupt appeared to have little chance to win.
"I thought he was a beat horse," said trainer Jeff Trosclair.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer won Saturday's Foster City with Somethinaboutlaura, and he may have another special runner in the 3-year-old filly Dixie Crisp, who wired a good maiden field by 6 1/2 lengths in her debut on Presidents Day. She was purchased privately last summer by Hollendorfer after she had sold for $250,000 last May in a juvenile sale.
"She's going to be nice," said Russell Baze, who rode Dixie Crisp, a daughter of Dixieland Band out of the Capote mare Two Step Trudy.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - "The bounce guys should have a field day," trainer Jimmy Jerkens quipped when he confirmed that he planned to bring his rambunctious but extremely talented Corinthian back on 23 days' rest off a career-best performance in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap.
Corinthian earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 106 for his 9 1/2-length victory over Jazil in a second-level allowance race on Feb. 8. It was his first start since closing out his injury-plagued 3-year-old campaign at Saratoga in July.
Trainer Chris Block turned over Corrupt, the unbeaten 3-year-old colt bred and owned by Block's family, to Fair Grounds-based trainer Jeff Trosclair for the winter, but that didn't stop Block from fretting about Corrupt's start in Monday's Mardi Gras Stakes. Corrupt was ready to run, Block said, but he wondered if the seven-furlong Mardi Gras was too short for this bulky, powerful colt. It was - and it didn't matter.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Brother Derek, the winner of the 2006 Santa Anita Derby, will miss Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Handicap to undergo surgery to have a bone chip removed from an ankle, trainer Dan Hendricks said on Sunday.
Brother Derek has "lived with" a bone chip for most of his career, Hendricks said. The trainer said the bone chip was not a problem until recently.
"It's time to take it out," Hendricks said. "It's been in there since his second or third race. It never irritated him but it's moved a little bit. We had hoped to make the handicap first."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Two turns agree with Olivine just fine.
The filly is unbeaten in both starts since trainer David Donk stretched her out around two bends on Aqueduct's inner track.
She won her maiden in her third start with a rallying victory in her first route attempt on Jan. 21. The follow-up was a front-running score Sunday in the $69,745 Busher Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It is time for Fast Parade to prove he can do more than win turf sprints.
That is the outlook that owners Gary and Cecil Barber and trainer Peter Miller are taking with the 4-year-old Fast Parade, who makes his Grade 1 debut in Saturday's $300,000 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita.
General Charley ($14.40) was prominent throughout for a 4 1/2-win over Goosey Moose in the $45,000 Tomball Stakes for Texas-breds Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park.
It was another half-length back in third to favorite Northern Scene.
General Charley dueled through fractions of 24.78 seconds for the opening quarter, 49.53 for the half-mile mark, and 1:13.76 for six furlongs, then went on to win the 1 1/16-mile turf race in 1:43.94.
Paul Nolan rode the winner for trainer Michael Stidham.
Volcom earned the first automatic berth for the $1 million Champion of Champions in December with a victory in Saturday's $236,800 Los Alamitos Winter Championship for older Quarter Horses.
Ridden by Cody Jensen, Volcom ($12.80) ran 400 yards in 19.527 seconds in the Grade 1 race, finishing a head in front of 4-5 favorite Spike it and Fly, who broke poorly. Dutch Schultz finished third in the field of 10, giving trainer Paul Jones a sweep of the first three finishers.
Volcom, 4, has won 11 of 19 starts and $379,540 for owner P.K. Thomas.