Taking command right at the start, locally based Cherokee Prince made every pole a winning one en route to a stunning track-record performance in the $65,000 Budweiser Challenge Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Under a well-judged ride by Mike Allen, Cherokee Prince cut out early fractions of 47.52 seconds and 1:11.52, then shook off Nightmare Affair leaving the second turn. She drew away steadily to win by 6 3/4 lengths.
These are heady times for Buff Bradley. Two weeks before the veteran trainer will run Brass Hat in the most important race of his training career, Bradley saddled Ella Belle for a surprisingly easy front-running victory in the $50,000 Wintergreen Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
Ella Belle was ridden by Willie Martinez, who will be aboard March 25 when Brass Hat runs n the $6 million Dubai World Cup. After breaking sharply from post 3 in a field of nine fillies and mares, Ella Belle secured command into the first turn of the one-mile Wintergreen
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Having ridden Kazoo nine previous times in the horse's career, Richard Migliore knew immediately that the 8-year-old horse was going to run as well as he could in Saturday's $107,400 . What Migliore wasn't sure about was whether it would be good enough to win the Grade 3 sprint stakes.
But after putting away favored Bishop Court Hill turning for home, Kazoo was never challenged in the final furlong en route to a four-length victory in the Toboggan before 4,818 at balmy Aqueduct.
The owner Louis O'Brien and his trainer, Ralph Martinez, have started nine horses so far in the year 2006, but the floodgates are about to open.
The entries begin flying when Fairmount Park, the home track for O'Brien and Martinez, opens its doors late in the winter. This year's racing season begins Tuesday, and Martinez was ready when entries were taken Friday. He put horses in seven of the 10 races, and though the trainer Steve Manley entered in eight races Tuesday, Martinez is all but certain to top Fairmount's trainer lists both in volume of starters and number of wins.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The consistent filly Balance cannot control the weather. Otherwise, she gets ideal conditions Sunday at Santa Anita, where leadership of the 3-year-old filly division is up for grabs in the Grade 1, $300,000 .
Although the 1 1/16-mile stakes drew nine entrants, it figures as a three-horse race among Grade 1 winners Balance, Wild Fit, and Diplomat Lady. No matter how the race unfolds, Balance should find herself in the right spot, even if the track is wet.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Minister Eric has yet to live up to the potential indicated by his second-place finish in the 2003 Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
Although he won the Grade 2 San Fernando Breeders' Cup Stakes, minor injuries and an illness kept Minister Eric off the track for most of last year.
"He's had a lot of little things" go wrong, his trainer, Richard Mandella, said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - California Sen. Dean Florez is preparing to introduce legislation that will aid the state of California's racetracks in funding the installation of synthetic racing surfaces, which the California Horse Racing Board has mandated be in place at state tracks by the start of 2008.
None of California's five Thoroughbred racetracks have such a surface, but Del Mar and Hollywood Park are considering installing one late this year or in 2007. Track officials have estimated the cost of installing a synthetic surface at approximately $8 million per track.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Rockport Harbor from off the pace? Maybe.
Depending on the pace, trainer John Servis said, Rockport Harbor could employ a new running style Sunday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Razorback Breeders' Cup Handicap at Oaklawn Park.
"I think you might see him stalking this time, unless they go 24, 48," Servis said. "If they do that, then he'll be in front."
five career wins have all been wire to wire. But he is now 4, and more settled in his training. Last out, he won the Grade 3, $100,000 Essex at Oaklawn on Feb. 11 off a nine-month layoff.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The rubber match between Up an Octave and Mr. Silver in Sunday's $100,000 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park might come down to a matter of distance.
Trainer Todd Pletcher likes the 1 1/8 miles of the Palm Beach for the stretch-running Up an Octave, while his colleague Eddie Plesa Jr. is a bit wary of the extra ground his speedy Mr. Silver must negotiate for the first time in three meetings with Up an Octave.
finishing second behind Can't Beat It while Up An Octave rallied to finish another half-length back in third.
