OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Sprints on Aqueduct's inner dirt track don't come much tougher than Thursday's featured eighth race, a $49,000 dash with third-level allowance conditions and an optional claiming price of $75,000.
The nine sprinters entered have combined for 56 wins and earnings approaching $2.5 million. The field will be reduced by at least one, because the Richard Dutrow-trained entry of shippers Silver Gun and Call the Lord both have Mike Luzzi named to ride, so one must be scratched.
When trainer Burl McBride decided not to ship Palace Rumor back to Ellis Park after she raced at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, he might have saved her life.
That night, at about 2 a.m., a tornado ripped through the Ellis backstretch, and McBride took the worst of things. Two of his horses - horses he owned himself - were killed, and four others injured so badly that they could no longer race. The only one left standing was Palace Rumor, who was spending the night a couple hours away in Louisville, Ky.
CHICAGO - A handicapper could look at the eighth race on Thursday at Hawthorne as a battle between assumption and accomplishment. It is assumed that horses consistently racing at higher class levels will prove superior when dropping to face cheaper company. But what if the cheaper company has actually accomplished far more than the supposedly superior animals?
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Eleanor Rose can take advantage of a Bay Meadows track that is playing well to speed when she runs in the Thursday feature, a $62,500 optional claimer for fillies and mares going one mile.
The strong Thursday card also includes a $40,000 claimer, a straight maiden event, and a $40,000 starter allowance for 3-year-olds.
Eleanor Rose faces five runners, including Eclipse Winner, to whom she has lost twice. But with the help of a speed-friendly track, Eleanor Rose could turn the tables in this spot.
Trainer Nick Hines has received a stay of a 30-day suspension and $2,500 fine that he received on Dec. 19 after one of his starters at Del Mar in August 2004 tested positive for the drugs meprobamate and hydroxycarisoprodol, metabolites of the banned muscle relaxant carisoprodol.
Hines's suspension was scheduled to run from Thursday through Jan. 27, but the stay allows Hines to continue operating his stable until an appeal is conducted. The appeal process would take several months.
ARCADIA, Calif. - David Cohen and Proud Tower Too arrived in the winner's circle after Monday's Grade 1, $250,000 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita well prepared for an important photo.
Cohen's silks, boots, and breeches were so clean that he looked like a jockey going to post instead of one coming back from a win.
What better way to celebrate a Grade 1 win than to have a sharp look in the winner's circle? "I think the color man owes me a few dollars. He won't have to clean these," Cohen said, tugging at his green and white silks.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Following a nine-day holiday break, racing resumes at Aqueduct Wednesday with a juicy pick-six carryover of $187,730 and a competitive renewal of the $75,000 Alex M. Robb Handicap for New York-breds.
Though favorites have been winning at a 32 percent clip since the inner track opened on Nov. 30, there has been a pick-six carryover after eight of the first 14 cards. The carryover entering Wednesday's card is the largest of the winter.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The focus of day two at Santa Anita could be on Bai and Bai and Sierra Sweetie, who finished first and second in last month's California Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting. But , who rallied sharply to defeat maidens at Hollywood Park on Nov. 20, has the look of a rapidly improving filly who should appreciate the seven furlongs of the $125,000 California Breeders' Champion Stakes, the day's seventh race.
The featured ninth race on Wednesday is a high-level allowance for fillies and mares at about one mile on turf.
Maybe.
Close followers of the Fair Grounds meet at Louisiana Downs have begun making dirt backup picks in races originally scheduled for the grass. The last three racing weeks have brought a rash of rain-offs, with turf racing on six of the last 11 days washed away. This week's forecast calls for only a slight chance of storms Tuesday night, but the way things have been going, slight may be enough.