ARCADIA, Calif. - The names might not ring a bell to racing fans this week, but they could become familiar players on the Triple Crown trail.
On Wednesday, that quartet is part of an eight-horse field of 2-year-olds entered in a $52,000 allowance race over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita. The allowance race could produce a few starters for the $150,000 San Rafael Stakes over a mile on Jan. 14, a race expected to attract Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Stevie Wonderboy.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Bruce Levine could hold the key to unlocking riches in Wednesday's mammoth $187,730 pick-six carryover at Aqueduct.
Levine, who is 6 for 20 since the inner track opened, has runners in three of the races in the sequence and all look to have a legitimate shot. Levine will send out Prince Raffie in the fourth, Doll Baby in the sixth, and R B's Token in the ninth.
MIAMI - With four of the six stakes races here this weekend carded for the turf, it was no surprise the grass courses at both Calder and Palm Meadows saw plenty of action during training hours Monday.
At Calder, where the turf is available for training only once a week, seven 3-year-olds and one 2-year-old with designs on stakes races over the weekend prepped for those starts, including Dream On Dream On, who is among the likely favorites in Saturday's $100,000 Pete Axthelm Stakes.
Cole Norman said Monday he received the most amazing Christmas gift of his life: the ability to walk.
Norman is out of the hospital and at home after undergoing three-hour surgery to repair serious damage to his spine incurred last week in an accident on his property. Norman said he was slowly driving his Honda Polaris Ranger - a type of ATV - early in the evening when the vehicle struck a rut on a hillside and overturned, landing on top of him.
Trickey Trevor ($3.40) remained undefeated on wet tracks, scoring an easy wire-to-wire victory in the Holiday Turf Handicap on opening day at Bay Meadows on Monday.
The 1 1/16-mile race was switched to the main track after a week of rain.
Trickey Trevor, now 6 for 6 on wet tracks and 8 for 13 at Bay Meadows, controlled the pace through a 24.03-second opening quarter. He maintained the lead by over a struggling Desert Boom through a 47.09 half.
As expected, a heavy favorite won Monday's $75,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship at Laurel Park. Not, however, the morning-line choice.
Celestial Legend, 7-5 in the track program on the basis of her 4-for-4 record, was scratched when the track came up muddy.
In her absence, New York shipper Somethinaboutbetty was pounded to 3-5 and delivered a 2 1/2-length victory in the stakes restricted to Maryland-bred 2-year-old fillies. Her time for one mile was 1:41.04.
CHICAGO - Laws of geometry say a horse saving ground on the inside part of the racetrack will have an advantage over one racing on a wider path, and thus running farther. But try to explaining that to a half-ton animal trapped down by the rail and feeling antsy about it.
Approximately 10 of 44 horses in a quarantined barn at Turfway Park have shown evidence of the contagious equine herpes virus in blood and nasal swab tests, a Kentucky Department of Agriculture official said Monday.
Kentucky state veterinarian Dr. Robert Stout said none of those with positive tests had displayed clinical symptoms, which include respiratory and neurological ailments. There have been no reports of the virus spreading beyond the quarantined stable, he added.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Private Gift stalked the early pace under Robby Albarado before challenging the leader and edging clear to win Saturday's $75,000 Truly Bound Stakes at the Fair Grounds meeting at Louisiana Downs. Longshot Freei gave ground grudgingly down the lane and settled for second, followed by La Reason and Lucky Sabre. Go Girlfriend Go was a late scratch.
ARCADIA, Calif. - One day after Christmas, there is one more gift to open - Santa Anita. The 86-day winter racing season begins Monday with optimum conditions - full fields, competitive races, and a forecast for warm weather and fast footing. The meet begins with high hopes, which in Southern California happens only twice a year.
"There are two meets we look forward to - Del Mar and Santa Anita," said trainer Bob Baffert.
Hollywood Park lost its turf course at the autumn meet that ended a week ago, and the result is an inventory of fresh turf horses
