LEXINGTON, Ky. - Rusty Arnold didn't need to know anything about the Ashland Stakes other than how his unbeaten filly Letgomyecho was coming into the race.
"I know it's supposed to be real tough, but I can't tell you much about the other fillies in there," said Arnold. "All I know is my filly is doing exceptionally well since her last race. That's all I need to know."
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Another Apple Blossom, another champion making her comeback.
Ashado on Saturday at Oaklawn Park looks like the successor to Azeri, winner of the last three runnings of the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap. The race will be Ashado's first since her victory in the Breeders' Cup Distaff on Oct. 30.
locked up champion 3-year-old filly honors last year by being the first filly to turn a Kentucky Oaks-BC Distaff double. Her other wins of 2004 included the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks and the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Suppose for a moment that Sweet Catomine runs so well Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby that it becomes a no-brainer for the champion filly to run back in the Kentucky Derby four weeks later.
What, then, would that leave for the Kentucky Oaks?
Look no farther than the $500,000 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland.
Virtually every major Oaks prospect this side of Sweet Catomine will run Saturday in the Grade 1 Ashland, making the 1 1/16-mile race easily the most important prep for the May 6 Oaks.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Saturday's $55,000-added Miss America Handicap has been on trainer Sandy Shulman's radar for some time.
He trains the British-bred Pickle, who made her U.S. debut a winning one here March 12 in a one-mile allowance on turf, beating three of her Saturday rivals - First Draft, Marla Bay, and Lucky Sabre.
"That was a prep for this," said Shulman, who has given Pickle a pair of solid works since the victory.
, both shipping north for the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for fillies and mares, appear the ones to beat.
PHOENIX - He has never tried turf, but Desert Prospector's dazzling winter form still makes him the horse to beat in the $25,000 Arizona Stallion Stakes Saturday at Turf Paradise. The 7 1/2-furlong turf race restricted to Arizona-bred 3-year-olds has attracted a field of seven.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Anybody who watched Choose make his turf debut here last month will be hard pressed to bet against him in Saturday's $50,000 Yankee Affair Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The 11-race program also features the return of Miss Matched, a Grade 2-placed 3-year-old filly, in an allowance race later on the card.
Noon Win, a three-time stakes winner last year, heads a field of seven Ohio-bred 3-year-old fillies in Saturday's $40,000 Royal North Stakes at Beulah Park.
Noon Win, trained by Joe Martin, scored three consecutive stakes victories last year, the last two of which came at Thistledown and at Saturday's six-furlong distance. Noon Win has been sidelined since finishing 10th as the even-money favorite in the 1 1/16-mile John Galbreath at Thistledown on Oct. 9.
Fans of the first-time gelding angle will want to pay attention to Philadelphia Jim in Saturday's $50,000 Hoover Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for older horses at Laurel Park.
The 5-year-old , a five-time winner who recorded 100-plus Beyer Speed Figures three times last season, will be racing for the first time since he tired to finish fourth in the Sam Houston Sprint Handicap in January.
Any horseplayer who remembers the good old days, when racetracks carded only nine races a day and every field was full, had to enjoy looking at the entries for Saturday's third annual Florida Cup program at Tampa Bay Downs.
The Florida Cup is a series of six $75,000 stakes races restricted to Florida-breds. Each race drew at least 12 horses.
The question is whether the recent strangles scare at Tampa and the ongoing strangles situation that has plagued Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows will affect the field sizes by post time.
