GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Born to Dance is the kind of success story to which many owners aspire with a horse. Purchased as a yearling for about $10,000, she has gone on to earn $577,519.
Born to Dance was retired with a suspensory injury last month, after being pulled up during the running of the $100,000 Valid Expectations at Lone Star Park on May 29.
"She was just a great race mare," said owner Ro Parra. "She always, always tried. She sprinted and she went two turns. She was terrific."
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Sunday's $32,000 first-level allowance feature at Louisiana Downs, a five-furlong turf sprint, is loaded with unknowns. Specifically, eight of the nine Louisiana-bred fillies and mares in the field have yet to show how they will handle the transition from dirt to turf.
MIAMI - Florida racing lost a talented jockey and one of its best goodwill ambassadors when Rosemary Homeister Jr. decided to hang up her tack in November 2004. But Calder's leading lady for more than a decade couldn't get the sport she loved out of her blood, and on Friday announced she will resume her riding career at Calder beginning next weekend.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A couple of Kentucky Oaks also-rans made their returns to action Thursday at Churchill Downs, with a disparity in results.
Ex Caelis, who was eased in the May 5 Oaks, came back in winning style by capturing a 1 1/16-mile allowance from just off the pace. But later on the card, Miss Norman struggled in her first race for new connections, finishing fourth, beaten 13 lengths, in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance.
Trainer J. David Braddy had toyed with the idea of sending Yes He's the Man to New York for the Grade 2 Woody Stephens on the Belmont Stakes undercard, but instead opted to keep the 3-year-old colt at home in anticipation of facing much softer competition in Sunday's $65,000 Gilded Time Stakes at Monmouth Park.
The presence of Delaware shipper Master of Disaster and the long-idle Justawalkinthepark, however, could make Yes He's the Man work much harder in the six-furlong Gilded Time than he had in winning two similar sprint stakes in his last two starts.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - From May 21, 2001, through June 4, 2005, Lord Nelson started 24 times at Hastings. He won 13 races, finished second nine times, and third twice. All 24 of the races were stakes.
For that period of time, he was the horse to beat every time he stepped on the track. He was named the top handicap horse in the province four years in a row, and in 2004 he was honored as the local horse of the year.
AUBURN, Wash. - Karis Makaw was assigned co-high weight of 119 pounds for Sunday's 6 1/2-furlong Washington State Legislators Handicap, which didn't surprise trainer Bob Meeking. Karis Makaw earned her impost with a pair of impressive stakes wins here last season, and she did little to tarnish her reputation when she closed with a rush to be beaten less than a length by Kissntheboysgoodby in the six-furlong Hastings Park Handicap on May 14.
Nevertheless, Meeking feels that Kissntheboysgoodby, trained by Charlie Essex, is the one to beat on Sunday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Last year, Gold Strike became the first Manitoba-bred to win the Woodbine Oaks.
Trainer Mark Casse obviously is hoping that particular piece of history can repeat itself here Sunday when he saddles the Manitoba-bred Kimchi for the $500,000, 1 1/8-mile Woodbine Oaks.
Kimchi, a $70,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale, races for the Seasoft Stable of Sal and Colleen Simeone.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Daniel Taylor is not enjoying the best of health. He moves determinedly, but with a stoop.
Taylor, 56, has been a blacksmith since he was 15.
In his dual role as a trainer, however, Taylor sports a robust win percentage of 41.7 here at Fort Erie this year, having scored with five of his first 12 starters.
Heading into the weekend, only Stacey Cooper had more winners, with seven - and Cooper has had 32 starters.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Invaders figure to make Sunday's edition of the $40,000 Chantilly one of the toughest in recent years at Assiniboa Downs.
Eight 3-year-old fillies will contest the six-furlong feature, with U R Flashy and Diamondsintheway both making their first starts locally.
For U R Flashy, a daughter of Bold n' Flashy who has raced six times, it will be her first start away from Woodbine. As a 2-year-old, U R Flashy defeated Ontario-sired maidens in her second career start, then followed that race by winning the restricted Nandi Stakes at the Chantilly distance.