INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The two wins that Attima has achieved in the last two months have given her an aura of invincibility in Sunday's $750,000 American Oaks at Hollywood Park.
Rival trainers speak glowingly of their respective fillies, but are quick to heap praise on Attima, who will start favored in the Oaks after an impressive win in the Grade 2 Honeymoon Breeders' Cup Handicap on June 4.
"I don't think you can beat her," trainer Paddy Gallagher said of Attima.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The roster of top fillies and mares competing on dirt in Southern California has not changed significantly through the first six months of the year. Healthy Addiction, Proposed, and Star Parade have dominated the group, with Hollywood Story and Sharp Lisa playing supporting roles.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It was with a certain amount of astonishment that trainer Art Sherman walked toward the winner's circle to greet Siren Lure after the Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park on May 13.
Siren Lure had won his fifth stakes in the last year, overcoming significant trouble to score by a length.
"He impressed me," Sherman said Friday. "I thought he had no chance."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Fourty Niners Son made his stakes debut in the 2005 American Handicap at Hollywood Park, finishing a game third. Later in the year, he finished third in the Arlington Million and won the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Handicap, a strong season by any measure.
This year, expectations are higher. Fourty Niners Son is supposed to win races such as Sunday's Grade 2, $250,000 American Handicap.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Mr. Light was one of the top milers in the country in 2005 before owner Earle Macke retired him and sold him to Mill Ridge Farm as a stallion. It left a void in Angel Penna Jr.'s barn that the trainer seemingly has already filled.
Remarkable News has the appearance of another top miler and looms the horse to beat in Sunday's Grade 3, $100,000 Poker Handicap, scheduled for one mile on Belmont Park's Widener Turf Course.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Considering he accounted for 10 of the 25 juvenile fillies nominated to Sunday's $100,000 Astoria Stakes at Belmont Park, it only figures trainer Todd Pletcher has the horse to beat.
Octave, a daughter of Unbridled's Song, heads the field of seven entered in the 5 1/2-furlong Astoria, the first stakes for 2-year-olds run in New York this year.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Strong Contender will be vying for a spot in trainer John Ward's 3-year-old batting order when he runs in Tuesday's $150,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park.
Though Ward has said he believes Dr. Pleasure will ultimately be his best 3-year-old, recent results suggest otherwise. On June 22, Minister's Bid won a first-level allowance race by 2 1/4 lengths, his second victory in as many starts. He ran one mile in 1:36.77 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 101.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Nick Canani made the life-changing move from his native Southern California to Kentucky on the Fourth of July in 2005, and he would like nothing more than to receive a one-year anniversary gift a couple of days early.
The best thing Canani could get? A victory by the star of his 14-horse stable, Very Vegas, in the $70,000 Zenobia Empress, the Sunday feature at Churchill.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - One of the most formidable jockey-trainer combinations at the Churchill Downs spring meet is no longer. Rene Douglas was taken off all horses trained by Dale Romans after the two men had a disagreement about which Romans horse Douglas would ride in the first race Friday.
Douglas was named to ride Mansmind, while Julien Leparoux was named on the other Romans starter, Cat's on a Prowl. Romans said that Douglas wanted to ride Cat's on a Prowl.
"He didn't like my choice of horses," Romans said, adding that he was through with Douglas.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A well-matched group of 3-year-old fillies will hold the spotlight in the featured seventh race at Hastings Sunday. Not Just Dreaming, Klinsman's Luck, Northern Ayne, and Kinda Sassy finished less than a neck apart when they met in a $35,000 claiming race at 1 1/16 miles June 18. They meet again Sunday under the same conditions in a field of eight horses.
