ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bosskiri has the potential to be the new boss among the older female sprinters at Woodbine, and she will get the chance to show what she's got in Sunday's allowance headliner.
Other major contenders in five-furlong dash, a $79,900 prep for the April 16 Whimsical Stakes, are Abounding Truth and Top Ten List.
CALGARY, Alberta - Hot Talk heads a field of seven older runners in a $40,000 optional claimer, which runs as the featured eighth race at Stampede Park on Sunday afternoon.
The race is named the Jim Sumner Memorial Feature, in memory of the longtime custodian of the jockeys' room here who died in February.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Texas-based trainer K.C. Carden will shoot for a third straight victory in the Professional's Choice Claiming Challenge on Sunday, when he sends out No Options Mister against nine other Quarter Horses at 350 yards at Portland Meadows.
Carden shipped A Toast to Kc here to win the inaugural edition of the race in 2004, and he returned last year to win with My Special Easy Dash.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There will be Kentucky Derby fever in the air and $1 million on the table when 11 3-year-olds go 1 1/8 miles in Saturday's 55th running of the Grade 1 at Gulfstream Park. The Florida Derby is the richest of the Kentucky Derby preps in the United States and the highlight of an outstanding 13-race program, which includes six other stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Todd Pletcher could have been tempted to jump Bandini right back into Grade 1 competition after Bandini returned from a 10-month layoff and set a track record in allowance company this winter.
Instead, Pletcher opted to take a more conservative route by keeping Bandini at Gulfstream Park for one more start, in Saturday's $100,000 Skip Away Handicap.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Not many horses become a Grade 1 winner by just their sixth start. But that's what Einstein did five weeks ago in winning the Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Handicap, and even trainer Helen Pitts sometimes finds herself gazing at her stable star in wonderment.
"I've always thought he was special," said Pitts, who will send out Einstein as a major contender Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Pan American Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Crank him up and let him roll. It's becoming a familiar routine for Gygistar, a prototypical hard-knocker whose 7-year-old campaign gets under way Saturday in the $100,000 Artax Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
"We wait for the middle-distance races after we give him some time off at the end of each year," said trainer Mark Hennig, noting that Gygistar "hasn't skipped a beat" since returning from a freshening that followed a third-place finish in the Nov. 26 Cigar Mile. "We're looking forward to getting started on hopefully another good year."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Nick Zito will run outsiders Doc Cheney and Hesanoldsalt in Saturday's $1 million . He is also hoping to have the injured Great Point back in action in time to take one more shot at earning a berth in this year's Kentucky Derby.
But it is Little Cliff who appears to be Zito's best chance of getting a shot at earning his third Kentucky Derby victory.
"He's my Derby horse," said Zito shortly after Little Cliff worked five furlongs in 1:01 at Gulfstream on Thursday morning.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Truly a Judge is not acting his age. So says the 8-year-old's trainer, David Bernstein, and the horse's longtime exercise rider, Nestor Ocampo.
"Nestor has been on him for years, and says he feels bigger and stronger than ever," Bernstein said.
Want proof? On Monday, blazed three-eighths from the gate in 35.40 seconds, the fastest work of the day at the distance. It sets him up for a return to graded stakes company Saturday at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Acceleration has yet to win a stakes in her 11-race career, but it has not been for a lack of trying. She has run in six stakes, finishing second or third three times.
Saturday, she's at it again. is one of seven 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 3, $100,000 Santa Paula Stakes at Santa Anita.
This time, the race could unfold in her favor. A 6 1/2-furlong race, the Santa Paula Stakes includes several fillies that should ensure a quick pace to aid her late-running style.
