STICKNEY, Ill. - The sharp, undefeated winners of Illinois-bred 3-year-old sprint stakes last Saturday both emerged from their race in good physical condition. Top Kick, who beat males in the Land of Lincoln, and Pretty Jenny, who won the Lady Hallie for 3-year-old fillies, both can come back in second-level statebred allowance races if their connections desire.
Home of Stars, who impressively won the Milwaukee Avenue Handicap on Saturday, may chase bigger game.
AUBURN, Wash. - Beau Maggie had never run in a stakes before last Sunday's Auburn at Emerald Downs, but after winning the six-furlong race for 3-year-olds by a convincing 1 3/4 lengths he figures to be a regular with the added-money set from now on.
"We'll probably take him right through the stakes schedule," said trainer Bud Klokstad. "I do feel he'll go on and run at a distance, so more ground shouldn't stop him."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Of the 14 trainers with prospective starters in the 131st Kentucky Derby, Kiaran McLaughlin is hoping to have the hottest hand going in. And the way McLaughlin can accomplish that is by winning the race that directly precedes the Derby on the Saturday card at Churchill Downs, the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic.
McLaughlin appears to stand an excellent chance: Mustanfar, a hard-charging 4-year-old, is one of the main contenders in the 19th running of the $400,000 Woodford Reserve.
Michael Wrona, one of the nation's elite race callers, has been hired as the new voice of Golden Gate Fields, it was announced Tuesday by Ron Charles, head of Magna Entertainment's West Coast division.
Wrona most recently had been the race caller at Lone Star Park, like Golden Gate owned by Magna. Wrona left Lone Star in January after being told he would become a seasonal employee and have his salary cut.
Charles said he leaped at the chance to get Wrona, who will begin calling at Golden Gate when that track opens on May 11.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The hottest trainer at Hollywood Park has a soft spot for Kentucky Derby starter Afleet Alex. Vladimir Cerin, who entered the week with 5 wins from his first 11 starters, purchased Afleet Alex's sire, Northern Afleet, and trained him for three races at age 3 before the Mr. Prospector colt became a graded stakes winner for David Hofmans.
Northern Afleet won the Grade 1 Strub at 1 1/8 miles in 1997, but was most effective at shorter distances. Cerin believes Afleet Alex can stay 1 1/4 miles.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Two main themes, celebration and security, have been played up prominently as Belmont Park's 100th anniversary meet gets under way with tightened prerace security.
A third theme, the yet-to-be determined weather, will also have a role in how this centennial season goes, because if Thursday's card is any sort of indication, six-horse fields on dirt are going to be the norm.
Here's hoping it's not an unusually rainy spring, because, boy, do we need plenty of turf racing.
Thursday's five dirt races drew a total of 30 betting interests, six per race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Mike Lauer had the proverbial cup of coffee on the 2005 Kentucky Derby trail when a colt named Snack won three minor stakes at Turfway Park over the winter. Lauer ultimately sold a majority interest in Snack for a healthy sum, then watched with sadness when the horse sustained a fatal breakdown in Southern California in his first start for his new connections.
Overall, however, Lauer retains fond memories of his fleeting moments in the limelight.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - This fall handicappers will have to regularly assess the merits of horses that have raced over the soon-to-be-completed Polytrack surface at Turfway Park. Thursday's Grade 3, $100,000 La Troienne Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Churchill Downs provides a sampling of what is to come.
, are not yet stakes winners but seem to have the potential to win one.
The typical course of events has a good horse running in an allowance race and then, if things go well, moving on to a stakes. Queena Corrina is heading the other direction. Having won the Irving Distaff on April 16 in her first start of the season, Queena Corrina switches to a high-end allowance race Thursday at Lone Star, facing only five rivals on a turf course she relishes.
"It's a little unusual," said Donnie Von Hemel, who trains Queena Corrina for owner Stan Wilson. "I think they had us written out of the race, but it didn't go, so they wrote it back so we could run."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - It's one of the first axioms handicappers learn about racing: Pace makes the race.
Solving the pace puzzle is the key in Thursday's Bay Meadows feature, a $50,000 optional claimer at one mile on the turf for fillies and mares.
Nine entered the race, three of them strictly front-runners and two others quite comfortable setting the pace. With this much speed, tactics become important. Will jockeys sense a speed duel and take back, allowing one horse to steal the race? Will so many try for the lead that the race sets up for closers?
