GRAND ISLAND, Neb. A full field of 10 3-year-old fillies meet in Sundays $15,000-added Pepsi Stakes at Fonner Park, a race that should help sort out a division lacking any local standouts.
The trio of Slews in Oz Now, Squawk Talk, and Yesterdays Rose appear likely to vie for favoritism in an evenly matched field going six furlongs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Nick Zito has always considered the Florida Derby to be one of his favorite Kentucky Derby preps, despite the fact he has never won the race. He should like the race even better after he sends out both the favored High Fly and second choice Noble Causeway against seven other 3-year-olds in Saturday's 54th renewal of the Grade 1 race.
The race tops a 13-race card that includes four other stakes, three of which are graded, and will be shown live on ABC with post time at 5:45 p.m.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Ever since Eddington won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap here on March 5, trainer Mark Hennig had been thinking about sending him to the Grade 1 Oaklawn Handicap next Saturday. But after learning that Horse of the Year Ghostzapper was out of the race, Hennig's decision became a no-brainer.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though hadn't been out in eight months and was conceding six pounds to Coast Line, his trainer, Richard Dutrow Jr., doesn't feel Offlee Wild had any excuses when he came up a neck short to that rival in last month's John Campbell Handicap at Laurel Park.
Well, maybe one.
"Offlee Wild's game is not stalking another horse," said Dutrow, recalling that Offlee Wild chased Coast Line through soft early fractions. "He likes to lay a couple of lengths off it and have them battle it up front, that's his game. Hopefully, it works out like that next time."
Southern Africa started out in England and has done most of his racing in this country in California. But his road to Louisville goes through Sunland Park in New Mexico. Southern Africa, winner of the Borderland Derby at Sunland on Feb. 27, is the favorite in Saturday's $500,000 , a 1 1/8-mile race that drew nine other 3-year-olds.
ARCADIA, Calif. - can revive his fading reputation when he is fitted with blinkers for the first time since July in Saturday's $100,000 Tokyo City Handicap at Santa Anita.
A stakes winner at Calder and Del Mar last year, Supah Blitz has lost three consecutive races, leaving trainer Doug O'Neill and the partners who own the 5-year-old horse at a loss for excuses.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The restriction on horses shipping into New York from south Florida because of the strangles outbreak has changed the complexion of Saturday's Grade 3 Skip Away Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Trainer Patrick Reynolds wanted to run in Aqueduct's Grade 3 Excelsior Handicap on Saturday, but because the horse is not allowed to ship there, he has stayed here and will run against nine other older horses in the 1 1/8-mile Skip Away.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - In the aftermath of the greatest triumph of his nascent training career, George Weaver is not expecting a letdown any time soon.
"I'll probably be on cloud nine the rest of the year," said Weaver.
A perpetual state of euphoria would be quite understandable: Last Saturday, Weaver sent out Saratoga County to win the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen. One week later, Weaver will be at Gulfstream Park to try to recapture a fraction of that excitement when he runs Christine's Outlaw in the Artax Handicap on the Florida Derby undercard.
