CHICAGO - Creeker's Surprise has been doing that dance that derails so many racehorses - one step forward, two steps back. The 5-year-old mare brings four layoff lines into the featured eighth race at Arlington Park on Wednesday, and though she looks good enough to win it, one has to wonder just where this mare's development is at when she makes her first start since early January.
"I have questions," trainer Jerry Calvin said.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Icy Atlantic stole the Battlefield Stakes and the improving Quite a Bride scored her third straight win in the Trenton Stakes on an all-turf card Monday at The Meadowlands Racetrack.
The eight-race program was run on a course listed as yielding at the start but upgraded to good for the third race. The first four races were run with a temporary rail set at 17 feet; the last four, including both $60,000 stakes, were run against the permanent fence.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Buzzards Bay is coming to the Stephen Foster Handicap. Trainer Ron Ellis decided Sunday that circumstances were right to send Buzzards Bay on a charter flight Monday to Churchill Downs, where the colt will be a co-topweight and quite possibly the favorite Saturday in the Grade 1 Foster.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - On Saturday, trainer Mark Casse watched Arch Hall take over the lead in midstretch under jockey Patrick Husbands only to fall victim to a resurgent Barbeau Ruckus in the final furlong of Woodbine's 1 1/16-mile Steady Growth.
So Casse couldn't be blamed for feeling an uncomfortable touch of deja vu when Kimchi began moving to the lead in Sunday's $502,000 Woodbine Oaks at 1 1/8 miles.
Santa Anita will interrupt training on its main track for as long as two weeks in the next month to inspect the base of the racetrack, track president Ron Charles said over the weekend.
"What we're looking to do is open the track up and look at the base, have the base examined, and make sure it's 100 percent," Charles said.
He said the project would likely take 10 days.
"If we did find problems, it could be longer," he said. "It could go to 14 days."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Buzzards Bay is coming to the Stephen Foster Handicap. Trainer Ron Ellis has decided that circumstances were right to send the colt on a charter flight Monday to Churchill Downs, where the colt will be a co-topweight and quite possibly the favorite Saturday in the Grade 1 Foster.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Last summer at Del Mar, jockey Patrick Valenzuela thought he had a stakes-winning mount with Hystericalady, an invader from northern California. It turns out he was off by about 10 months.
While Hystericalady finished a disappointing sixth under Valenzuela in the Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar last August, she easily won Sunday's $152,400 Hollywood Breeders' Cup Oaks at Hollywood Park.
Leading throughout, Hystericalady ($16.40) set early fractions of 23.73 and 47.10 seconds and won by 7 1-2 lengths in her first start around two turns.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Jockey Chance Rollins was in critical condition in Stanford Hospital suffering from bleeding in his brain stem in the back of his brain after being thrown over the rail during Sunday's third race at Bay Meadows.
The 36-year-old rider was aboard odds-on favorite Dr. Ramos when the 5-year-old gelding veered in sharply in the opening eighth of a mile just before the 15/16ths pole. Rollins appeared to bail off the runner and landed with one foot on the safety rail before somersaulting and falling on his side on the hardpan dirt inside the rail.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Kimchi circled three wide into contention on the far turn and then held off Sweet Breanna in the final furlong to win the $502,000 Woodbine Oaks on Sunday.
Kimchi saved ground on the first turn before jockey Patrick Husbands angled her wide for the run down the backstretch. Seductively set quick fractions of 23.10 seconds, 46.97, and 1:11.83, with Sweet Breanna and Executive Flight in close pursuit.