ARCADIA, Calif. - Friday's $75,000 Paseana Handicap will determine the direction of Dona Amelia's winter campaign.
Trainer Eduardo Inda is already plotting an ambitious course. Friday's race, at a mile on dirt, is four weeks in advance of the $250,000 Santa Maria Handicap on Feb. 10.
"The timing is perfect," Inda said. "I love that."
But it is unclear whether Dona Amelia is a Grade 1-caliber mare in the United States.
It's not like Jeff Trosclair has trained 20 different champions, but he has had graded stakes-class horses pass through his barn more than once, and Trosclair did work under Bill Mott, who has trained a decent horse or two. So, when Trosclair suggests that Hyte Regency might wind up being the best horse he has ever trained, it's not just an idle boast.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Overly Tempting might not be the biggest cinch of the meet, but there is no doubt that she is the lock of the card in race 6 Thursday at Santa Anita.
Eight California-bred fillies and mares sprint 6 1/2 furlongs, and if they all run to their figures, Overly Tempting should cruise in the first-level allowance/optional $32,000 claimer. She is a short-price single at about even-money.
All has not been golden of late at Fair Grounds, where higher-class races have recently been slow to fill, and handle whacked by wet weather. But the heart of the Fair Grounds meet really starts beating only after New Year's Day has passed, and the first major open stakes day of the season, Saturday's Road to the Derby Kickoff Day, bodes well for things to come.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Garrett Gomez and Alex Solis are trading places Saturday in the Grade 2 San Fernando Stakes. Gomez rode Brother Derek to a seventh-place finish Dec. 26 in the seven-furlong Malibu Stakes. Solis rode Arson Squad, who was eighth. When they stretch out Saturday to 1o1/16 miles, Gomez will ride Arson Squad and Solis will be back aboard Brother Derek.
Sometime this week trainer Scott Blasi is going to disappear. Blasi's name appeared next to about 1,000 horses who started last year, but when trainer Steve Asmussen returns from a six-month suspension this week, trainer Scott Blasi will revert to assistant trainer Scott Blasi and fade from the public eye.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Here's something that sounds familiar: a stretch-running 3-year-old who was a stakes winner last year starts for the first time at age 4, and is still eligible for second-level allowance conditions.
No, it's not Jazil, the Belmont Stakes winner who managed to finish second at 2-5 in last Friday's eighth race. This time it's the filly Daytime Promise, who is winless in seven starts since taking the Busanda Stakes on Aqueduct's inner track last January.
ALBANY, Calif. - Golden Gate Fields fans saw some of the top horses on the grounds over the weekend, starting with Bai and Bai and Victorina, who put on a stirring battle Saturday in the $59,175 Muir Woods, with Bai and Bai winning by three-quarters of a length.
On Sunday, Smokey Stover staked his claim to being northern California's top older sprinter with a 10-length victory over Vaderator in an allowance race.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. Thursdays feature race at Gulfstream Park, a $48,000 second-level allowance event on the turf for fillies and mares, proved so popular it turned into co-features after attracting 15 entries and being split by racing secretary Dave Bailey as the fifth and seventh races on the card.
Baileys decision to split the 1 1/8-mile turf race was a good one for trainer Anthony Sciametta and jockey John Velazquez, who will now be able to participate in both divisions, with Cassydora and Almonsoon.
