Nikki Nine, recent winner of the Bachman Stakes against the boys, and Kelly Carson, a stakes winner at Columbus last summer, headline a wide-open field of 10 3-year-old fillies set to face off in the $15,000-added Pepsi Stakes.
Any of the 10 fillies appear capable of pulling off the win in this first stakes offering of the Fonner season for 3-year-old females, and the winner will establish herself as the one to beat throughout the year.
When Ball Four finished second at 45-1 last September in the Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park, the one question that many fans asked in the aftermath was this: Who rode him?
The answer came soon enough. The rider was apprentice Julien Leparoux, who was making his first appearance of note on the Kentucky circuit. Ball Four led most of the way before settling for second behind Shaniko in the Grade 2 Kentucky Cup Classic, giving Leparoux his first of many Turfway thrills.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Tom Two will shoot for his seventh win from 14 starts when he takes on six other Oregon-bred 3-year-olds in Saturday's $11,000, 1 1/16-mile McFadden Memorial at Portland Meadows.
Tom Two is something of a throwback to an earlier era. Owner and trainer Delmer Webb started him 11 times at 2 and he posted five wins, four of them in stakes. He has already started twice at 3, running second to Ballou Slew in the six-furlong Flying Lark Stakes before winning the one-mile Greek Native Invitational Handicap in his last start on Feb. 26.
Latenite Special, last year's top older New Mexico-bred mare, attempts to show she's still the one they must go through as she defends her title in Saturday's $100,000 Sydney Valentini Handicap at Sunland Park. Her presence didn't exactly scare away the opposition, however, as the mile race lured a field of 12.
Exonerated Cash and Lights Out Lidge provide a rematch of their trial for the Grade 2, $147,572 Mardi Gras Futurity when they meet in the finals Saturday at Evangeline Downs.
Exonerated Cash defeated Lights Out Lidge by a nose in their trial for the 300-yard futurity, and they recorded the top two qualifying times. Exonerated Cash finished in 15.936 seconds, the fastest of nine trials on March 4. Lights Out Lidge finished in 15.941 seconds while coming in second as the 4-5 favorite. Both were making their career debuts in the trial.
PORTLAND, Ore. - It isn't enough that Thoroughbreds are subject to myriad physical ailments. Some are also afflicted with mental problems, which can be quite bizarre.
Golden Jive, who will take on the best older sprinters based at Portland Meadows in Saturday's Governor's Speed Handicap, is a case in point.
ARCADIA, Calif. - For trainer Bob Baffert, three is not a crowd. Four maybe, but not three.
After watching his 3-year-olds Bob and John, Point Determined, Point of Impact, and Sky Diving work on Wednesday morning at Santa Anita, Baffert decided that three of those colts, but not all four, would run on Saturday in the Grade 2, $250,000 San Felipe Stakes.
Point of Impact, with only three starts the least experienced of the four, is the odd colt out. He, like Point Determined, is owned by Beverly Lewis and the estate of Bob Lewis.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The course for 6 1/2-furlong turf sprints at Santa Anita careens downhill, makes a soft right-hand turn a quarter-mile from the start, and forces runners to cross the main dirt track before the sprint to the wire. It is a unique, popular course, which track owner Frank Stronach came to realize after first saying the course would be razed for development when he purchased Santa Anita in 1998.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Jockey Edgar Prado isn't riding every leading Kentucky Derby candidate in upcoming prep races over the next several weeks. But he is holding as good a hand as any at the moment, one that includes such aces as two-time Grade 1 winner First Samurai and the undefeated trio of Keyed Entry, Barbaro, and Strong Contender.
Prado was out early at Gulfstream Park on Wednesday to work Strong Contender for trainer John Ward. The son of Maria's Mon worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds in his final major prep for the Grade 2 Lane's End at Turfway Park on March 25.
