OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It won't take long for Richard Migliore to know if L'Oiseau D'Argent will run well when he makes his 6-year-old debut in Saturday's $100,000 Fort Marcy Handicap.
"You know by the time you leave the paddock," Migliore said. "It all depends on how he acts. If he gets blown up and washes out and gets wild, he doesn't run nearly as well. If he kind of keeps his composure, boy, he's got a good race in him."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The competition was unquestionably tougher during the opening half of the 2005 Gulfstream Park meeting than it has been in the latter stages of the meeting, because most of the major outfits have already shipped north. It's a factor that could make Picture Gallery an intriguing proposition in Friday's $37,000 feature, a third-level optional claimer for fillies and mares at a mile on the main track.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A rain-soaked 2004-05 Santa Anita winter-spring meeting ended on Monday with a drop of 3 percent in all-sources handle from the 2003-04 meeting.
Ontrack attendance dropped 9 percent from the previous meeting to an average of 8,062 per day. Daily average ontrack handle was off 8 percent, to $2.1 million. The all-sources average handle was $10.8 million.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Five horses were entered Tuesday in Saturday's $250,000 National Jockey Club Handicap, and the favorite, Badge of Silver, looks something like 1-5.
Whatever his exact price Saturday, Badge of Silver will appear to many a clear standout, and he will be odds-on to shoot straight to the lead from post 3 and take his four foes on a merry chase.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Bubba Cascio achieved perfection last week at Lone Star Park. All five of the horses he started over the first four days of the meet won, including 11-year-old Feerless Peer, who pulled a $31 upset in the fourth race Sunday.
Cascio also won the fourth race last Thursday night with Oak Hill ($10.40), the fourth and eighth races last Friday night with Visinand ($11.60) and Bellagio Bob ($7.60), and the fifth on Saturday with Logan's Draw ($6.80). His win payoff on a $2 bet averaged $13.60.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - A strong Friday night card will offer fans quality but not much quantity as Bay Meadows prepares for Saturday's San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile.
Only 48 horses were entered, but Friday's races include a $40,000 starter allowance sprint, a $40,000 optional claimer at a mile, and a first-level allowance sprint that is the most interesting event on the card.
Six older fillies and mares meet in the allowance sprint, including Peruvian-bred New Rose, Paranoide Mistress, and Smokey Lady, who moves up off a victory in starter allowance company.
Swede, a winner of two straight allowance races at Oaklawn Park, heads a field of eight 3-year-old fillies entered in Friday's $50,000 Goldfinch Stakes over six furlongs at Prairie Meadows.
Trained by Larry Jones, has posted a pair of gate-to-wire, open-length victories at six furlongs to begin her 2005 season. Overall, she has a record of 3-1-0 from 5 starts, good for over $58,000 in earnings.
Terry Thompson has a return call on Swede, who starts as the 119-pound highweight under the allowance conditions of the Goldfinch.
Four-time national champion jockey "Smiling" Joe Badilla Jr., who retired from riding last July, is opening a public training stable. His primary client will be Enrique Gonzalez's nationally prominent EG High Desert Farms, winner of the 2003 champion owner award.
Badilla takes over the EG High Desert horses previously trained by Felix Gonzales.
"I don't miss riding, but I miss being around the track," Badilla said. "My goal is to manage every horse well for every owner."
AUBURN, Wash. - Queenledo, the winner of last Saturday's U.S. Bank Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, almost didn't make it into trainer Tim McCanna's barn. Once there, she nearly made a quick exit.
McCanna said he purchased Queenledo's dam, Tenderness, almost on a whim. He had trained Tenderness during her racing career, and he became concerned about her fate after the bidding on her stalled at a rock-bottom $400 at a Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association winter sale in the mid 1990's.
Lori Wydick, a leading jockey at River Downs in the early 1990's, rode in her first race in nearly five years last Friday and notched her first win of the meet on Saturday. The win came on the third mount of her comeback, on Melissa's Luv Song in the fifth race.
Wydick's return to race-riding is a result more of personal matters than chasing unfulfilled aspirations. Wydick retired in 2000 to care for her son Matthew, now 5. But she has been embroiled in a prolonged custody battle with the boy's father, Greg Morehead.
