Apollitical Time, winner of the Los Alamitos Super Derby, is one of three mares coming out of the Grade 1 Champion of Champions to return in the Grade 1, $110,550 Charger Bar Handicap for fillies and mares on Saturday night at Los Alamitos.
The other Champion of Champions competitors in the 400-yard Charger Bar, which attracted a full 10-horse field, are Texas Chatterbox and Apollos Favorite.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Trainer Jonathan Nance says he believes in striking while the iron is hot, and the iron couldn't be much hotter than it is right now.
Nance, the defending training champion at Portland Meadows, won three races here on Monday, giving him five wins during last week's three days of racing. One of his recent winners was Cascades Express, who captured the six-furlong Jane Driggers Debutante on last Saturday's Oregon Championship Day program, and Nance plans to run her right back in this Saturday's one-mile Mt. St. Helens Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Construction workers mingled with early arrivals, performing whatever last-minute chores were necessary to have Gulfstream Park's work-in-progress grandstand ready Wednesday for opening day of the 2006 meeting. And from all indications, it was a job well done.
Unlike the 2005 Gulfstream opener, which was conducted under tents and had two races canceled, Wednesday's eight-race card came off about as smoothly as could be expected under the circumstances.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Funny Cide hasn't won a race since October 2004 yet his name remains one of the most recognizable in the sport, still conjuring memories of his outstanding 3-year-old campaign, highlighted by victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
Now 6, and among the elder statesmen of the handicap division, Funny Cide will try to keep his name in the forefront beginning here Saturday when he launches his comeback in the six-furlong Mr. Prospector Handicap.
The field for Saturday's Grade 2, $400,000 was in flux right up until entry time on Wednesday, but the race came away with a competitive group of eight older horses, including Alumni Hall and West Virginia, who were not considered definite starters earlier in the week.
Normally run in March, this year's New Orleans Handicap is not only being run earlier, but also at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., where Fair Grounds is conducting an abbreviated meet due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - On the surface, it appeared logical. Trainer Rick Violette, leery about running a recent maiden winner in a stakes, scratched Spenny out of Monday's Ruthless Stakes to run in an allowance race at Aqueduct on Friday.
Violette may have had some second thoughts after favored Oprah Winney bounced off her last effort and finished last in the Ruthless, while Friday's entry-level allowance race drew a full, competitive field of 11.
ARCADIA, Calif. - When a 6-year-old veteran such as Kewen runs the best race of his life in the 21st start of his career, a handicapper's natural inclination is to expect a mild relapse the next time he runs.
Skeptical horseplayers adopting that viewpoint Friday at Santa Anita will dismiss Kewen in the race-7 feature, a 6 1/2-furlong turf sprint that is the best wagering contest on the card. But dismissing Kewen would be a mistake. He may not be a lock in the second-condition allowance, but none of the other 13 entrants is either.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Northern California has a deep crop of 3-year-olds who should generate some interest along the Kentucky Derby trail this year.
Several of them already have made their presence felt in Southern California, and the two divisional leaders already have three stakes victories each.
The cancellation of last Monday's scheduled Bay Meadows Mile put a crimp in the plans of several trainers who had hoped to use that race as a prep for the Grade 3, $250,000 El Camino Real Derby on Jan. 29.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The New York Racing Association is experimenting this winter with allowing supplemental nominations to its traditional stakes program. The Mid-Atlantic-based trainer Randy Allen plans to take advantage of that stipulation by putting up the $650 supplemental fee to make Mike'sgoodandtough eligible for Saturday's $65,000 Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Although the rain cleared out late Monday, the Santa Anita main track remained muddy Wednesday morning, and horsemen juggled training schedules to accommodate the weather and upcoming stakes schedule.
"The track's not that good - we're just going easy" trainer Richard Mandella said while One Union worked a half-mile in 48.80 seconds preparing for the six-furlong San Miguel Stakes for 3-year-olds on Sunday.
