INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It may look like the Oceanside Stakes, but a pair of mile turf races for 3-year-olds Thursday at Hollywood Park is mostly a preview of coming attractions.
Leo Getz and Gold Bridle are the leading contenders in race 3, a nonwinners-of-one-other-than/optional $80,000 claiming race that is expected to produce starters for the $100,000 Oceanside to be run July 20, opening day of the Del Mar meeting.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The colt Bashert delivered the most impressive performance of the season by a 2-year-old maiden last Sunday at Hollywood Park, and people are taking notice. Making his second career start, Bashert won a 5 1/2-furlong race by five lengths, geared down, in a quick 1:03.49. The time earned a whopping 98 Beyer Speed Figure.
"Ninety-eight? No wonder the phone's ringing off the hook," owner-trainer Bill Currin said Tuesday. "I thought he would win, but I didn't think he would win as easy as he did."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If the longest of journeys starts with but a single step, then Brad Cox can consider himself well under way. Cox, a former assistant to trainer Dallas Stewart, began his solo training career last fall with just three horses, but his initial successes have allowed his stable at Louisville Trackside to grow at a steady pace, and he now finds himself as an occasional player in races of decent stature.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Autumn Snow will prep for a possible start in the $1 million Queen's Plate in Thursday's eighth race at Woodbine, a 1 1/16-mile preliminary allowance.
Autumn Snow, a late bloomer trained by Mac Benson, was recently supplemented to the June 26 Plate at a cost of $15,000. He was beaten by double digits in each of his first two outings at 2 before running third in a key maiden event on Sept. 11.
AUBURN, Wash. - Willie the Cat drops to the $20,000 claiming level in search of a confidence-boosting win Thursday, versus six other older sprinters in the 6 1/2-furlong feature at Emerald Downs.
Willie the Cat, 6, a front-runner trained by Tim McCanna, took Emerald Downs by storm last April and May, winning three straight starts, including a world-record performance in a 5 1/2-furlong allowance race and stakes wins at six furlongs and 6 1/2 furlongs.
Crowned King is doing some damage in the handicap ranks at Louisiana Downs. He won his second straight stakes race of the meet May 30, when he rolled to an overwhelming, eight-length victory in the $50,000 Barksdale Handicap. The win came just one start after a sharp neck score in the $50,000 Alliance Handicap at the track April 30.
The Barksdale was moved to the main track from turf, while the Alliance was held on the grass, and with a resume littered with both dirt and turf stakes wins, co-owner and trainer Billy McKeever has lots of next-race options for Crowned King.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Strap on the shoulder pads Thursday as Hurricane Shockey takes on Belichick in the allowance feature at Monmouth Park.
They square off in a $38,000 race at a mile and 70 yards for horses who have never won two races.
Trainer Jim Ryerson had high hopes for Hurricane Shockey, named for the New York Giants tight end, following a 2-year-old season in which the New Jersey-bred colt showed talent in open company by winning his maiden and finishing third in the Dover Stakes at Delaware Park.
ALBANY, Calif. - holds several distinctions on Thursday's Golden Gate Fields card.
The 8-year-old mare will be the oldest horse competing. She has hit the board 15 times, a figure matched by only Marquet First among runners on the day's card, and she has made 30 starts, the most of any of the day's runners. She is also the leading money-earner with $111,078.
And she is still a maiden.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Reade Baker will have more than strength in numbers going for him when he enters five fillies for Sunday's $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks. He will also have quality.
The Baker quintet includes three fillies that are coming off stakes wins and will be among the top five choices in the 1 1/8-mile Oaks for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
A field of 11 for the Woodbine Oaks is expected when the race is drawn on Thursday, beginning at noon in the trackside tent.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Got turf?
Lone Star Park does, all night on Thursday.
There are three turf allowances on the nine-race card, with grass being the focus in the fourth, sixth, and eighth races. A split entry-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies at one mile accounts for the fourth and sixth races, while the eighth is an entry-level allowance for 4-year-olds and upward at five furlongs. The purse for each of the three races is $27,500.
