Crafty Bear hasn't raced at shorter than six furlongs since his career debut or been closer than fourth at the first two calls of his last two races. He has also yet to run over anything other than a fast track.
Despite those glaring form flaws and a forecast that calls for rain on New Year's Day, Crafty Bear is the track's 9-5 morning line favorite - and the sentimental choice - for the $90,000 Dancing Count Stakes for 3-year-olds going 5 1/2 furlongs at Laurel Park.
PHOENIX - Moores Bridge and Komax, two of the elite sprinters on the Arizona circuit the past couple seasons, renew acquaintances in Monday's $45,000 Cactus Wren Handicap at Turf Paradise. The 6 1/2-furlong event for Arizona-breds has lured a field of eight.
Moores Bridge and Komax each carry high weight of 123 pounds, but the slight edge may go to defending champ Moores Bridge, who appears in top form.
Monday marks the start of a new year, and in what has become a tradition for Turfway Park, a new meet. The northern Kentucky track will begin 2007 with the start of its winter-spring meet, which immediately follows its holiday meet.
Aside from record-keeping purposes, there is not much difference between the two meets. The purses and quality of racing remain mostly the same. Around this time Turfway loses some Kentucky-based stables to Oaklawn Park and Gulfsteam Park for their meets, but picks up some horses from the Chicago area while Hawthorne is closed from Jan. 2-Feb. 22.
Dreaming of Anna had her first serious workout since winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies when she breezed a half-mile Friday morning over the turf at the Palm Meadows training center.
Angel Cordero Jr. was aboard Dreaming of Anna for the workout, which was timed in 47.60 seconds.
"Angel thought she went in 52 or something," said trainer Wayne Catalano. "That's how easy she was going, and that's how good she goes over the grass."
PHOENIX - So far it has been a walk in the park for R Big Stuff to prove he's the best juvenile Arizona-bred in training. He gets a chance Sunday to show he's the best 2-year-old on this circuit overall when he leads a solid field of 10 2-year-old males in Turf Paradise's Lost in the Fog Juvenile at 6 1/2 furlongs.
The $50,000 stakes, formerly called the Arizona Juvenile, was named in honor of the 2005 champion sprinter who set a course record in the 2004 Arizona Juvenile and died earlier this year from cancer.
Last year, owner George Coleman and trainer Henry Dominguez traveled to the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2-year-olds in training sale in April to find a prospect for the Riley Allison Futurity at Sunland Park, and came up with the eventual race winner - Disappearing Trick.
STICKNEY, Ill. - In a typical year, Ralph Martinez wouldn't be sitting at a long table situated just inside the grandstand glass at the Hawthorne Race Course finish line. The Fairmount Park-based Martinez usually only runs a handful of horses this time of year in Chicago, having closed up shop at Fairmount and whatever Indiana, Ohio, or Kentucky tracks he might be invading.
NEW ORLEANS - Skyward Exchange turned in one of the more impressive performances by a 3-year-old filly at the Fair Grounds meet on Dec. 17, running six furlongs in 1:10.62 to win a first-level allowance and earn an 87 Beyer Speed Figure.
It was her second consecutive victory after a maiden score at Churchill Downs in November. She had been off since February, when she suffering a chipped ankle while running second to Ermine, who went on to finish second in the Kentucky Oaks and win the Falls City Handicap.
When jockey Perry Ouzts returned to riding for the first time Tuesday following a riding accident that left him sidelined for 11 months, his mount, Divine Dancer, fell just short of completing a perfect comeback story - finishing second under him in the second race at Turfway Park.
But for the 52-year-old Ouzts, who sustained a compound fracture of his right forearm and fractures to five vertebrae in a spill at Turfway in late January, he still felt like a winner.
"I still got it!" he told observers after Divine Dancer closed to within a length of victorious Treat.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Eibar Coa joined a select group of riders Friday, when he recorded his 300th win of the year on the New York Racing Association circuit.
Coa became just the fourth rider to accomplish the feat, joining Angel Cordero and Mike Smith - who both did it twice - and Steve Cauthen, who set the NYRA single-season record for wins with 433 in 1977. Coa's 300th victory came aboard Significant Other in Friday's fourth race, and his 301st and 302nd wins came later on the card, aboard Sir Tyler T and Spooky Mulder.