INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The speedball My Miss Storm Cat falls into a category that is easy to overlook - filly-mare sprinters. Does anyone really care?
They should, because lightly raced can put on a show. The dazzling 4-year-old filly re-emerges Sunday at Hollywood Park in the $65,000 Desert Stormer Handicap. Six entered the six-furlong stakes; 3-for-5 My Miss Storm Cat stands out.
"Now that it stopped raining, she's doing really well," trainer Bob Baffert said.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Basket of Dreams and Katelyn's Star look like the ones to beat in the eighth race at Hastings Sunday. A 6 1/2-furlong $20,000 claiming race for fillies and mares which haven't won three races, it drew seven horses and serves as the feature on the nine-race card.
CALGARY, Alberta - Rider Stephan Heiler and his agent, John Heath, chose to ride Kaylee's Magic in Sunday's $50,000 Lilac here at Stampede Park. That was an easy call, on the basis of Kaylee's Magic's seasonal debut in the Mount Royal here May 7.
Kaylee's Magic, Alberta's 2005 horse of the year, was let go at 4.40-1 in the six-furlong Mount Royal as Hastings invader Bond Queen took all the action. But Kaylee's Magic easily disposed of Bond Queen turning for home and posted a one-length triumph over Awesome Deal.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Apprentice rider Josue' Arce, who left Florida after a decent Gulfstream Park meet to give the Kentucky circuit a try, scored his first Churchill Downs victory when he guided Diamondsintheway to a 2 3/4-triumph in the fifth race Thursday.
The mount was the 27th at Churchill for Arce, who said Friday: "I was hoping that would come soon."
Arce wasted little time getting his second Churchill victory when Lifes Crown won the fifth race Friday.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Sweet Talker can be a player in the filly and mare turf division this year, and her path toward major races later in the season goes through Texas.
Sweet Talker, the winner of last year's Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup, is expected to be the 120-pound starting highweight for the Grade 3, $200,000 WinStar Distaff. The one-mile turf race for fillies and mares is one of six stakes worth a total $1 million at Lone Star Park on Monday.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Early speed has fared well over the turf course at the young Louisiana Downs meeting, but last Sunday it bordered on the surreal. All three turf races were dominated by those up front and the resulting payouts had many players scratching their heads.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Balance, the winner of two Grade 1 stakes earlier this year, will be out until late fall after she was found to have a bone chip in her left ankle, trainer David Hofmans said.
Surgery to have the bone chip removed was scheduled for Saturday. Hofmans estimates that Balance will need 90 days of rest before she can resume training.
Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., was closed for training on Friday morning after a powerful storm Thursday night inflicted widespread but minor damage to the track's barn area, officials of the track said.
The storm, which hit northern Kentucky on Thursday evening with driving rain and wind, damaged nearly every barn on the backstretch, according to Sherry Pinson, a spokeswoman for the track. No horses or humans were injured as a result of the damage, Pinson said.
"Counting the pony barn, we have 20 barns, and only two or three of them have no damage," Pinson said.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Sis City returns to Monmouth Park, the scene of the victory that launched her career, for the $65,000 Fort Monmouth Stakes on Sunday.
The 4-year-old looms a solid favorite in the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares with her tremendous back class and her always formidable trainer, Richard Dutrow Jr.
Dutrow claimed her for $50,000 at Saratoga in the summer of her 2-year-old season. Sis City's next start was Monmouth's Mongo Queen Stakes, and the results were dazzling: a 16-length victory.
