OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The King of Aqueduct is dead.
King's Swan, dubbed the "King of Aqueduct" for his great success at the Queens, N.Y., racetrack, had to be euthanized this week because of complications associated with a leg injury. He was 26.
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and its horsemen have reached agreement on a plan to run three all-turf race cards this summer at The Meadowlands racetrack because the new turf course at Monmouth Park isn't expected to be ready for the opening of the Monmouth meeting, the legal counsel to the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association said Friday.
ALBANY, Calif. - Sunday starts a big week at Golden Gate Fields for owner Harry Aleo and trainer Greg Gilchrist, the connections of Eclipse sprint champion Lost in the Fog.
In the morning, Lost in the Fog will have his first work since returning to Gilchrist's barn last month from a farm in Florida. Gilchrist said it would be an easy three-furlong work, the first of nine or 10 leading to his first race of 2006, the Golden Gate Fields Sprint on April 22.
ARCADIA, Calif. - In an era when Grade 1 races can sometimes fail to live up to their status because of shallow fields, Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita is deserving of its stature.
The Las Virgenes has drawn the winners of four major stakes on this circuit in the last three months: , the winner of the Sharp Cat in November; Diplomat Lady, the upset winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet in December; Itty Bitty Pretty, who won the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel in January; and Dance Daily, who won the Grade 2 Santa Ynez here in January.
ARCADIA, Calif. - As long as she is racing in California, Healthy Addiction ranks at the top of the older female division.
Healthy Addiction, 5, has won 4 of her last 5 starts in California, a span that includes a win in the Grade 2 Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap here in October.
Saturday, she will attempt to win her first Grade 1 in the $250,000 at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Stevie Wonderboy underwent surgery on Wednesday to have two stabilizing screws placed at the bottom of his right front cannon bone, a procedure that will prevent him from starting in the Kentucky Derby but will not keep him from a return to racing later this year, trainer Doug O'Neill said.
The champion 2-year-old male of 2005, Stevie Wonderboy was considered a top candidate for the Derby. After a workout on Monday, Stevie Wonderboy was found to have with a non-displaced condylar fracture of his lower right cannon bone, just above the ankle, O'Neill said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Wednesday's pick six at Santa Anita returned $1,258,755.40 to two ticketholders on a day when three longshots paid $17 or higher.
The tickets were purchased at Sam Houston Race Park and through the Gulfstream Park hub, according to Santa Anita officials. Following a two-day carryover of $751,394 from Sunday, bettors added $3,180,817 to the pick six on Wednesday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Two years ago, trainer Todd Pletcher was hoping to use a couple of grass races at Gulfstream Park as a springboard to the UAE Derby in Dubai for his Chilean-bred Host. Those plans didn't quite work out, but Pletcher will be thinking along the same lines on Saturday when he sends out Host as the highweight and favorite in Gulfstream's Grade 3, $100,000 .
This time, Pletcher's long-range objective for Host is the $5 million Dubai Duty Free at 1 1/8 miles on the turf on March 25.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The death of owner-breeder Mahmoud Fustok on Wednesday had an immediate impact on the local racing program. Trainer Ralph Ziadie had planned to enter four horses owned by Fustok's Buckram Oak Farm on Saturday's program, including Grade 1 winner Silver Wagon, who was scheduled to make his turf debut in the Grade 3 . Instead, none of them will run, upon instruction from Buckram Oak's racing manager Mohammed Moubarak.
