SAN MATEO, Calif. - Friday's second race, a $25,000 claimer at six furlongs for 3-year-olds, should give trainer Billy Morey a good idea of whether Wild Truce is a claiming horse or something better.
won his first two starts. He was claimed for $12,500 from his winning debut, then won by 13 lengths when he was boosted to the $16,000 level against winners.
It hasn't taken long for a pair of owners whose horses usually race at Turf Paradise to find their way into the deeper end of the pool. Chris Eaton is headed to Santa Anita with his mare Allbow for Saturday's $500,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf, while Mark Dyer will be heading east to Gulfstream Park with Night Dash for the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Turf.
Allbow has post 3 and will be ridden by Miguel Hernandez, while Night Dash landed post 8 and Chris DeCarlo. Both races are at 1 1/8 miles.
Bettors will have plenty of good-looking recent form to work with in Friday night's $50,000 Genesis Stakes at Evangeline Downs, at least on paper. No fewer than five of the 3-year-old fillies entered are coming off a win, and while none of those victories came in stakes company, several in the field will likely be sporting plenty of black type before the year is out.
Later this meet, Middleweight could attempt a sweep of Sam Houston Race Park's biggest races for older horses. He won the first half of the equation last Saturday night, with his 1 1/4-length score in the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup on dirt. Middleweight is also a stakes winner on turf, the surface of the Grade 3, $200,000 Connally Breeders' Cup at 1 1/8 miles on April 8.
"The Connally could be on our radar," said Al Stall Jr., who trains Middleweight for Peter Gaffney and Stewart Madison.
It wasn't as easy as her previous three wins, but Peppers Pride remained unbeaten with a terrific late rally in last Saturday's $125,000 La Senora Handicap at Sunland Park, drawing rave reviews from her trainer, Joel Marr.
"She's one of the best fillies I have ever trained," Marr said. "It's a pretty good feeling. She makes things easier on me."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The eighth Kentucky Derby Future Wager opens Thursday for a four-day run, the earliest opening date since Churchill Downs officials began offering parimutuel futures on their signature race in 1999.
Last year, Pool 1 of the future wager was held Feb. 10-13, its customary calendar slot. Since Churchill has a policy of separating the three pools in the annual future wager by at least four weeks, and with the Super Bowl to be played on Feb. 5 this year, company officials decided to go to the earlier opening dates.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When former jockey Donna Barton Brothers decided last summer that she wanted to start exercising horses in the morning once again, she didn't have to look very far to find work. She just passed her impressive resume across the kitchen table to her husband, trainer Frank Brothers, and just like that she had herself a job.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Ian Wilkes, who recently took over a portion of trainer Carl Nafzger's large stable, got his 2006 Gulfstream meet off to a quick start by saddling a pair of winners here last week. Wilkes, a native of Australia, figures to add to that victory total when he sends out Atlas Valley in Thursday's $37,000 feature, a 6 1/2-furlong optional claimer.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trailing Twelve, a distant fourth behind Achilles of Troy as the favorite in the Count Fleet Stakes, will attempt to bounce back in Thursday's eighth race at Aqueduct.
The 1 1/16-mile route is an allowance/optional claimer with first-level conditions that drew 11 3-year-olds. The field includes the Gary Contessa-trained entry of Sunshine Alpine, a debut winner against $50,000 maiden sprinters, and Wazoo City, whose two best races by far came on the Polytrack surface at Turfway Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It is too soon to compare a second-condition allowance winner to a horse that won the Breeders' Cup Mile, but don't tell trainer Julio Canani. He trained Silic to victory in the 1999 BC Mile, and has another budding turf miler in Charmo, who will jump into a Grade 1 after a sharp two-other-than allowance win last Saturday at Santa Anita.
Racing one mile, Charmo ran his final quarter-mile in about 22.50 seconds despite losing a shoe at the eighth pole. "Silic did the same thing the first time I ran him," Canani said. "I hope it's an omen."
