ALBANY, Calif. - Brahms Allegro was expected to have talent from the start, not that having been bought for $450,000 at a Keeneland yearling sale guarantees success.
Cinderella Liberty was a modest yearling buy in Washington, the daughter of a first-year sire.
They meet at Golden Gate Fields Sunday, in the $50,000 Piedmont for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs.
The Katrina Invitational Jockey Challenge at The Meadowlands Racetrack raised $25,168 Thursday night to benefit Louisiana horsemen.
The event attracted Louisiana riders Kent Desormeaux, Craig Perret, Mark Guidry, and Eddie Martin Jr. They rode in one race, the third, against Gary Stevens, Aaron Gryder, Joe Bravo, Edgar Prado, and Stewart Elliott.
The challenge was originally planned for four races, but the riders spent the additional time signing autographs as part of the fund-raising effort.
The Indiana Racing Commission gave approval on Thursday to a schedule of 110 days of Thoroughbred racing in the state for 2006.
Indiana Downs, located east of Indianapolis in Shelbyville, will begin a 49-day session on April 21 and run through June 28 with a schedule of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday cards offered. Hoosier Park, located northeast of Indianapolis in Anderson, will conduct a 61-day meetthat begins Sept. 2 and runs through Nov. 25 with racing on a Wednesday through Sunday basis for most of the season.
Donald Paulik, a trainer on the Chicago circuit, has been ruled off all facilities under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Racing Board after one of his horses tested positive for the powerful synthetic narcotic etorphine. The horse that triggered the positive test, Texas Tree, won the first race on Friday, Oct. 21 at Hawthorne. An inquiry into the matter has been scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 19, at which time a penalty could be handed down for the offense.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - King's Drama looks intimidating Saturday in the Grade 2, $150,000 , the last graded grass stakes of the year at Aqueduct.
In his last two New York appearances, both Grade 1 stakes, King's Drama won the Sword Dancer at Saratoga and was second by a neck to Better Talk Now in the Man o' War at Belmont Park. A 5-year-old gelding, King's Drama is trained by Bobby Frankel.
"The horse to beat is Frankel," said Richard Schosberg, who sends out Certifiably Crazy. "He's got a class edge. It's a question of whether he has enough weight on him to back him up."
MIAMI - The $200,000 Carl G. Rose Classic, like the seven other stakes on Saturday's Florida Million Day program at Calder, is a showcase for Florida-breds. But it may be an invader from Canada, the Grade 2 stakes winner Palladio, who is the one to beat when a field of 10 goes in the 1 1/8-mile race.
MIAMI - The ongoing rivalry between trainers Bill Mott and Christophe Clement returns to Florida on Saturday in the $150,000 Bonnie Heath Turf Cup. Mott sends out Silver Tree and Clement trains Revved Up for the Bonnie Heath, a 1 1/8-mile turf race that attracted a field of 12. The Bonnie Heath is one of eight stakes, all for Florida-breds, on Florida Million Day, including the $200,000 Elmer Heubeck Distaff Handicap and $150,000 Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap.
MIAMI - Saturday's Florida Million Day program will provide one last chance for statebred juveniles to earn a big payday against their own kind, with four 2-year-old races on the card topped by the $150,000 Jack Price Juvenile and the $150,000 Joe O'Farrell Juvenile Fillies.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Mrs. Revere and Mr. Day will be the objects of close scrutiny and high praise, respectively, when Churchill Downs fans file into the track Saturday.
The Grade 2 is the highlight of a 10-race program that has been designed as a means for Churchill to honor Pat Day as the track's all-time leading jockey. A busy itinerary of "Pat's Day" activities surround the $150,000 Mrs. Revere, a 1 1/16-mile turf race that concludes the 2005 graded stakes schedule for 3-year-old fillies in North America.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It's often a guess as to whether a horse who races on turf will take to the main track. There are some handicappers and trainers who ascribe to the theory that horses with speed on turf can better make the adjustment. That was one reason Bobby Frankel cited for giving Peace Rules a chance on the dirt.
