HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Jimmy Jerkens will be heading back to New York on Wednesday and taking his entire stable north with him. That news will be greeted with a sigh of relief from the connections of any filly and mare with an eye toward running in next Saturday's Grade 2 Shirley Jones Breeders' Cup Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - With the New York Racing Association on Friday officially lifting its restrictions on Maryland shippers effective March 18, the path is cleared for that state's top 3-year-old male and female horses to race in a pair of Grade 3 stakes events at Aqueduct that day.
The connections of Sweetnorthernsaint, the talented gelding, and Celestial Legend, the undefeated filly, confirmed that their horses would ship to New York to run in the Gotham and Cicada, respectively.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Magnolia Jackson goes from hunter to hunted in Sunday's $65,000 Broadway Handicap at Aqueduct.
was 4-1 when she upset odds-on favorite Great Intentions in last month's Correction Handicap, a six-furlong race for open company fillies and mares. Sunday, Magnolia Jackson figures to be favored against eight rivals in the Broadway, a six-furlong race restricted to New York-bred fillies and mares.
Jockey Sunny Ho, who underwent brain surgery after a March 1 accident at Golden Gate Fields, was removed from the intensive care unit at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif., on Friday.
Ho's neurological progression is improved, according to the Golden Gate Fields track physician, Dr. David Seftel. Ho is out of restraints and no longer under sedation.
The rider still was being fed through a tube and had only minimal movement on his right side.
CHICAGO - Throw out the turf horse Load a Chronic, who failed to fire in a dirt race here last week, and trainer Shannon Ritter has won with three of her four starters at the National Jockey Club meet at Hawthorne. Ritter has just a handful of horses, but they seem to land in ideal spots - much like Winvictus in the featured fourth race on Sunday.
Bully Bones didn't exactly scare them away in Turf Paradise's $50,000 Cactus Cup Handicap on Sunday. Ten other 3-year-old fillies have decided to take a swing at her, possibly because she is giving major weight to the opposition. Bully Bones, the 126-pound highweight, will be conceding from nine to 16 pounds to her opponents in the 6 1/2-furlong event.
ALBANY, Calif. - Marla Bay has been up against it, both on and off the track. Her career almost ended last summer when she hit the rail during a race, and since returning she has faced some real buzzsaws.
in the $40,000 Muir Woods overnight stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Golden Gate Fields.
Though she's not a stakes winner, Marla Bay has run second in the three stakes she has entered during her career, including the Grade 3 Yerba Buena here last May.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The weather may ruin Star Parade's chances of running in Saturday's $300,000 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap at Santa Anita, but could make for an ideal weekend for her rival Healthy Addiction.
Expected rain would leave Star Parade in the barn, trainer Darrell Vienna said. Conversely, Healthy Addiction would do well on a wet track, trainer John Sadler said.
