ARCADIA, Calif. - Private World is relatively young, not very big, and not particularly fast. But does it matter?
A 3-year-old filly, . Even with eight starters, the Tapestry might be a two-filly race.
The placement of the Tapestry as race 8 overshadows a more lucrative stakes for 3-year-old fillies. The $100,000 La Habra Stakes, scheduled at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf, also drew eight starters, including Grade 2 winner Dance Daily.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Even the usually cynical railbirds cheered Richard Migliore as he returned to the winner's enclosure aboard Ojibway following the third race on Friday.
"The Mig" was back after months of painful rehabilitation.
Migliore, on his first mount since breaking a leg and injuring an Achilles tendon in a paddock accident at Belmont Park on Oct. 20, teamed with Ojibway ($8.40) to pull out a head win.
Jockey Sunny Ho, who had brain surgery Wednesday night following a spill that afternoon at Golden Gate Fields, showed "significant improvement" by Friday, according to the Golden Gate Fields track physician, Dr. David Seftel.
Ho, 44, suffered bleeding in his brain after his mount broke down in the seventh race. Ho got up after the spill but later collapsed and stopped breathing. He was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif., for the emergency surgery.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Beau's Town, the 8-year-old gelding who was retired earlier this week, is one year older than his new owner. Dave Hulkewicz, who raced the Grade 2 winner, has given Beau's Town to trainer Cole Norman's 7-year-old daughter, Cheyenne.
Beau's Town gave Norman his most important career win when he captured the Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup at Del Mar in 2003. In all, he won 13 of 23 starts and $697,850.
"He's been good to me and my whole family," said Norman. "A lot of things have happened because of that horse. He's opened doors for me."
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainers Don Von Hemel and Kelly Von Hemel, who are father and son, appear to have the leading contenders in the featured ninth race Sunday at Oaklawn Park.
"I hope it comes down to us two," said Kelly Von Hemel, who will start probable favorite Semaphore Man.
Don Von Hemel has Carroll County, who has won 3 of 6 career starts at Oaklawn. Others in the field are Skin Flint, Been Wavering, Tricky Devil, and Silver Zipper.
PORTLAND, Ore. - An evenly matched field of eight older runners will vie at 1 1/8 miles in Sunday's Tissington Starter Handicap at Portland Meadows.
The Tissington, which will be run under $4,000 starter handicap conditions, honors a durable campaigner who raced here for eight years under the guidance of owner and trainer Jim Keen. Tissington made 102 starts, winning 14 times and earning $67,692 before dying of an illness last August at age 11.
ALBANY, Calif. - Good trainers, like good pitchers, are never afraid to throw a curve.
In Sunday's $40,000 Mount Tam overnight stakes at Golden Gate Fields, trainer Art Sherman will do something he rarely does - run a horse off of short rest. Sherman has entered Vaca City Flyer, fresh off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Las Flores at Santa Anita just eight days earlier.
"That's not my M.O.; that's not what I usually do," Sherman said.
Rattlesnake Joe had things going along quite nicely, winning three of his first five outings - and then he tried to run with Da Stoops in the $250,000 Sunshine Millions Dash at Santa Anita on Jan. 28. Da Stoops won the race by 7 1/2 lengths, with Rattlesnake Joe far back in seventh.
Rattlesnake Joe doesn't appear to be facing any horse with the ability of Da Stoops on Sunday in the $40,000 Palo Verde Handicap at Turf Paradise. The 6 1/2-furlong event for 3-year-olds has lured a field of eight.
CHICAGO - Six was the magic number when entries were drawn Friday for Sunday's program of racing at the National Jockey Club meet at Hawthorne. Of the nine races on the card, five of them attracted just six entries - not so magical after all.
After a busy first two days of this meet, which began Feb. 24, the pace of entries has slowed to a crawl, with especially short fields last Monday and Tuesday, and while 10- and nine-horse fields finish off the Sunday card, the average number of entries per race was just more than seven.
