ARCADIA, Calif. - With the lessons of two crunching losses in New York and Japan behind them, the connections behind Lava Man are aiming him for local stakes in coming months.
Lava Man was at his best last summer at Hollywood Park, where he won the Californian Stakes and the Hollywood Gold Cup. He later finished seventh in the Jockey Club Gold Cup in New York in October and 11th in the $2.07 million Japan Cup Dirt in Tokyo in November.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The decision by New York Racing Association officials to prohibit Maryland-based horses from shipping to Aqueduct because of an outbreak of equine herpes at Pimlico has a major impact on Sunday's $65,000 Busanda Stakes over the inner track.
Sea Pines, a filly stabled at Laurel Park, would likely have been favored in the Busanda, a mile and 70-yard race for 3-year-old fillies. Now she won't be allowed to run. The Busanda was originally scheduled for last Sunday, but was postponed when inclement weather forced that card to be scrapped.
A sleeping infant would be able to point out the class drop Happy Ticket is taking when she makes her 2006 debut on Sunday at the Fair Grounds meet at Louisiana Downs. After ending a tremendous 2005 campaign in a trio of Grade 1 races in New York, Happy Ticket launches her 5-year-old campaign in the $100,000 Lagniappe Ladies Sprint, a 5 1/2-furlong race restricted to Louisiana-breds. Odds in the range of 1-5 seem likely.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - For years the tote board here has flashed a message that "the sun always shines at Oaklawn Park," and it did indeed come out for a brief while on a warm and overcast Friday, about the time the second race broke from the starting gate during the track's opening day card.
A packed apron watched as Swift Trieste edged Silly's Brother in a photo finish that took several minutes for officials to decipher. When the results were known, a roar rose up from the apron that few tracks hear during a weekday program.
Calder Race Course has named Michael Anifantis as its new racing secretary, replacing Bob Umphrey, who died suddenly on Jan. 2. The announcement was made jointly on Friday morning by Ken Dunn, president of Calder, and Donald Richardson, the senior vice president of racing at Churchill Downs Inc., the owner of Calder.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Maggi Moss's presence in New York racing is felt virtually on a daily basis. Until Friday, her presence at a New York track had never been known.
On an unseasonably warm January morning, Moss stood outside trainer Gary Contessa's Aqueduct barn as her 19 horses were paraded before her. More often than not, Moss was able to correctly identify each of them though she had never seen any of them up close.
Desert Wheat looks like the horse to beat Sunday in the $75,000 Black Gold Handicap. But as the saying goes, you gotta be in it to win it, and in that respect Desert Wheat might not qualify.
Owner Jerry Lee and trainer Tony Richey also entered Desert Wheat in Saturday's Crescent City Derby, and as of Friday afternoon, Richey said he was leaning toward running in that 1 1/16-mile dirt race rather than the Black Gold, a 7 1/2-furlong turf race.
"It's not cast in stone, but it's probably 80 percent that we'll run there," Richey said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When jockey Jerry Bailey announced his retirement earlier this week, the news suddenly left trainer Frank Brothers without a rider for First Samurai when he opens his 2006 campaign in the Grade 2 Hutcheson Stakes on Feb. 4.
Bailey had ridden First Samurai in each of his last four starts, including victories in the Grade 1 Hopeful and Champagne stakes and a third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - It was all systems go on Friday morning for the additional backstretch security measures that the Arkansas Racing Commission is introducing this meet at Oaklawn Park. There is a new backstretch surveillance system with wireless cameras that can be moved to different barns; random, prerace blood testing on horses; and a monitor assigned to stables selected by the stewards.
