INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Quicken Tree Stakes arrived at an ideal time for Continental Red in 2003, providing him with a comfortable spot against statebreds to end a three-race losing streak.
Saturday's $75,000 Quicken Tree Stakes at Hollywood Park can serve the same purpose for Continental Red.
A 9-year-old gelding, Continental Red, is winless in 20 starts since the 2003 Quicken Tree Stakes, a span that includes appearances in 19 stakes, 13 of them graded.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - A well-rested Twist and Pop and the mud-loving Capeside Lady headline the $70,000 Monmouth Beach Stakes Saturday at Monmouth Park. The card also includes the $55,000 Crank It Up Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
Twist and Pop was a very shrewd claim for $22,500 by trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. in March of last year at Aqueduct.
The mare stepped up her game for the new barn, winning four races, including Monmouth's Lighthouse Stakes. She thrived on the Jersey Shore with a record of 3-2-0 in six starts at Monmouth last summer.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Stronach Stable invaded Fort Erie with seven runners last weekend and left with five wins, a second, and a third, plus two track records.
The stable has no stalls at the track, yet heads the owner standings, comfortably, with nine scores.
Six of last weekend's starters, in the hands of trainer Sean Smullen, shipped in from Adena Springs North in Aurora, Ontario, while trainer Justin Nixon brought one of his stars, High Blitz, from Woodbine.
The New York Racing Association and MGM Mirage have signed a management agreement for a slot-machine facility at NYRA's Aqueduct racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y., the two companies announced Thursday.
Charlie Hayward, NYRA's chief executive officer, said Thursday that the agreement will allow NYRA to use MGM's line of credit to secure funding to build a $170 million casino to house 4,500 slot machines. MGM will then consult with NYRA on the layout of the casino, Hayward said, and take over management of the casino when it is completed.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - From mid-May through early June, Churchill Downs lost potential starters as a result of a quarantine caused by multiple discoveries of the equine herpes virus. Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Northern Dancer Stakes, the track actually stands to pick up a runner as a result of quarantine.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Having trained racehorses for 18 years, Tom Amoss has been on both the winning and losing ends of hundreds of photo finishes. Unfortunately for Amoss, one of his more memorable losses came some six weeks ago in front of 100,000-plus fans, when Rush Bay lost a heartbreaker to Rey de Cafe in the May 6 Crown Royal American Turf at Churchill Downs.
, said Amoss, "was unlucky to lose - just as the winner would've been unlucky to lose. They both ran great races that day."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - By sheer coincidence, Tony Reinstedler is running a horse against his onetime budding star. Reinstedler will saddle longshot Gouldings Green on Saturday in the Stephen Foster Handicap, the Grade 1 race in which Saint Liam, for whom Reinstedler laid a solid foundation, will be the highweight and probable favorite.
Reinstedler said he holds "absolutely none" of the ill feelings that some trainers might have when an owner takes a top horse away.
"I don't think that way," he said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With Santa Anita Handicap winner Rock Hard Ten only in light training, there is no clear leader in the California handicap division and few horses that merit national attention.
That could change after Saturday's $250,000 Californian Stakes at Hollywood Park, the top prep for the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9.
The eight entrants of the Grade 2 Californian will be trying to score, or in one case equal, their biggest career wins. Only Choctaw Nation has won a purse this large - in the San Diego Handicap last summer at Del Mar.
ALBANY, Calif. - This is one time that trainer Bill Morey wouldn't mind if lightning struck twice.
Two years ago, he claimed a California-bred for $32,000 from his debut and turned Trapper into the winner of a $100,000 stakes.
He is hoping to do the same with Don Jaun Con, claimed from an impressive victory in his debut and one of the ones to beat Saturday in Golden Gate Fields' final stakes of the spring meeting, the $75,000 Malcolm Anderson at five furlongs for 2-year-olds.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - My Trusty Cat is bred like a route horse. When she was young, she seemed to run like a route horse. If it looks like a route horse and acts like a route horse, it must be a route horse, right?
Actually, no, as trainer Dave Vance fully comprehended in March 2004. My Trusty Cat had won her first start that season, closing like a high-end real estate broker to win a sprint race at Oaklawn Park. Vance took the logical next step, stretching My Trusty Cat out to two turns in a stakes race.
