INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hollywood Park opens for racing Friday, but beyond the spring-summer season, uncertainty clouds the Churchill Downs-owned track.
Wide speculation is the Hollywood Park property could be sold and the track closed. Officials from Churchill Downs have neither fueled the rumors nor smothered them. So when Hollywood opens Friday night for the first of a 64-day meet, it will be business as usual for racing secretary Martin Panza.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Four months after being forced to cancel turf racing on the final two weekends of the fall meeting because of unsafe conditions, Hollywood Park will have a limited schedule of turf racing when its 64-day spring-summer meeting begins on Friday.
For the first few weeks of the season, racing secretary Martin Panza said he will take a cautious approach, carding one to three turf races a day.
He said rain could lead to a quick transfer of races to the main track and that the temporary turf rails will be altered frequently to even out wear on the course.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Bush-whacker was one of the fastest 2-year-olds in California last fall, but his recent form is a puzzle. After earning a 94 Beyer Speed Figure finishing second to Declan's Moon in the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue, Bushwhacker ran poorly in his next three.
What is Bushwacker's problem?
"I think it's right here," owner-trainer Bill Currin said, pointing to his head.
If Bushwhacker's issues are merely psychological, the speedster could wire the field Friday night in the $75,000-added Harry Henson Stakes at Hollywood Park.
A man who bet on Sweet Catomine in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9 filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday alleging that Santa Anita, owner Marty Wygod, and trainer Julio Canani committed fraud by not disclosing the filly's condition before the race.
Arthur Mota filed the suit, seeking unspecified damages.
Sweet Catomine finished fifth in the Santa Anita Derby as the favorite. On April 3, she bled in a workout at Santa Anita and was subsequently taken from Santa Anita to an equine clinic in Los Olivos, Calif., to be treated for bleeding.
AUBURN, Wash. - Bob Stories will be vying for a place in the Emerald Downs record book in Friday's feature, a 5 1/2-furlong test for $10,000 to $8,000 claimers that has drawn a field of eight.
A 9-year-old trained by George Colello Sr., Bob Stories has posted 14 career victories at Emerald, one behind the track record held by Fleet Pacific.
Jockey Lonnie Meche has been suspended 45 days and fined $2,500 by Lone Star Park stewards for a positive drug test. He has waived his right to an appeal, according to stewards, and he began his suspension on April 15.
Meche was cited for a urine test that contained methamphetamine, and for attempting to falsify the test. According to the ruling, he "was found to have a bottle containing substitute urine for his test."
Kyle Kaenel, the second-leading rider at the Turf Paradise meeting, suffered a broken C-2 vertebra and shoulder in a spill in Tuesday's eighth race.
Kaenel, 17, has been admitted to John C. Lincoln Hospital, which specializes in sports-related injuries, and, according to track officials, was being fitted for a halo on Wednesday that will restrict movement in his neck and speed the healing process.
"The break was clean with no displacement," said Kaenel's agent, Steve Nolan. "There's no paralysis. He has complete movement of his body."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Much has been made of how the very best of the Thoroughbred world has descended on Keeneland this spring. That theme will hold true when the steeplechase set makes its annual visit here Friday for the eighth running of the Grade 1 Royal Chase for the Sport of Kings.
The last two Eclipse Award winners in the steeplechase category, McDynamo (2003) and Hirapour (2004), are part of an outstanding eight-horse field that will soar over jumps while traveling about 2 1/2 miles in the $150,000 Royal Chase.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - As the second half of the 16-day Keeneland spring meet began Wednesday, the jockey standings were replete with names that are familiar even to casual racing fans.
Jerry Bailey was the co-leader with 10 wins, while the top 10 also included such established stars as John Velazquez, Gary Stevens, Robby Albarado, and Edgar Prado.
And therein lies perhaps the best story of the meet thus far: James Graham, an unheralded 25-year-old from Dublin, Ireland, also had ridden 10 winners, placing him in a tie with Bailey atop this veritable all-star cast of jockeys.
