INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It took a world record to beat in the Bullet Stakes at Hollywood Park on May 15. He led in the final furlong but was beaten a half-length by Scottsbluff, who zipped 5 1/2 furlongs on turf in 1:00.26.
Chances are Taikun will not have to run that fast to win Friday's $60,000 Flame Thrower Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf at Hollywood Park.
Trainer Bob Baffert has been fined $500 by the Churchill Downs stewards for two separate altercations with security personnel on Kentucky Derby Day.
According to chief steward John Veitch, who conducted a telephone conference on the matter on June 3 with Baffert, the first incident occurred in the paddock runway as Derby horses were being led over from the backstretch. Baffert allegedly made contact with a security officer who would not permit an associate of Baffert's into the paddock because the man did not have the proper credentials.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Ten older horses, led by Buzzards Bay and Brass Hat, have been entered for the Grade 1 on Saturday at Churchill Downs, although trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said Wednesday that the field might ultimately be nine at the most.
Dutrow entered both Wild Desert, who drew post 8 in the $750,000 Foster, and Love of Money (post 10), but said he is likely to scratch Wild Desert. Dutrow said he is inclined to save the colt for the Grade 1, $400,000 Suburban Handicap, a 1 1/4-mile race set for July 1 at Belmont Park.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Buff Bradley is glad his horse recovered more quickly than he did. Bradley has gone through just about every negative emotion since being informed by officials at Nad Al Sheba in Dubai that his stable star, Brass Hat, was being disqualified from second-place money in the March 25 Dubai World Cup.
CALGARY, Alberta - When True Metropolitan cruised home a handy winner of the Herald Gold Plate last Sunday, the beneficiary of a rapid early pace and a patient ride, it marked the 71st victory of the Stampede Park meeting for rider Quincy Welch.
Welch is the runaway leader in the rider standings, but the meet record of 83 wins that he
established last spring may be just out of reach as the meet heads into the final weekend.
Leading trainer Greg Tracy won his 23rd race of the meet on Sunday with Sassy Sarah and appears to be safe in defense of his 2005 title.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It is rare in horse racing when a trainer can point a horse to a race six months away and get the horse to the race in peak condition. Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. did it last month with Silver Train, who won the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, a race Dutrow had targeted since last November.
Trainer Mike Hushion believes he has done it with Nothing But Fun, who runs in Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park. Hushion and owner Barry Schwartz circled the Phipps on their calendars at the beginning of the year.
ELMONT, N.Y. - In need of a confidence boost, takes a drop in class Friday when she meets five rivals in the $65,000 A Wild Ride Stakes at Belmont Park. Friday marks the return of sunset racing to Belmont, where each of the last six Friday cards of the meet will begin at 3 p.m.
As a 3-year-old last year Sweet Symphony won her first four starts, including the Grade 1 Alabama in August at Saratoga. When she faced her elders, however, Sweet Symphony finished fourth in the Beldame and ninth in the Breeders' Cup Distaff.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Your Tent or Mine, a top 2-year-old at the 2005 Hollywood Park fall meeting, will not start in Saturday's $100,000 Affirmed Handicap because of an injury that had ended any hope of a 3-year-old campaign, trainer Neil Drysdale said.
Drysdale did not elaborate on the nature of the injury but said that Your Tent or Mine would need surgery.
"It's knocked him out for the rest of the year," Drysdale said. "But he'll be fine."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Rene Amescua is one of the better practitioners of the claiming game.
Since Jan. 1, 2005, he has won 24 percent of the time with horses in their first start off a claim. More importantly, from a bettor's perspective, he shows a positive $2.43 return on investment with those horses.
Amescua will send out Colonel Courtney for the first time in Friday's Bay Meadows feature, a $32,000 claimer at six furlongs.