SAN MATEO, Calif. - Although there are only five horses in the field, any of them could win Sunday's Bay Meadows feature, a one-mile first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds.
Stakes winner Indian Weaver, Sanfran, and Dino Camino - all of whom sustained extreme trouble in the same race last time out - come back for another try going a mile in race 2. Recent maiden winner Sir Charge and Dynawhite also bring good credentials into the race.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Stakes winner Quiz the Maid is always tough at Portland Meadows, but she might not be the one to beat in Sunday's running of the Oregon HBPA Invitational Handicap.
Quiz the Maid has scored all eight of her victories and four seconds at Portland Meadows in 13 career starts. She's also 4 for 5 at Sunday's six-furlong distance.
What's not to like?
She is the likely favorite, coming off a win in the Sweetheart Handicap here on Feb. 12, but there are several quicker runners in the field who could be tough to catch.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The news of the passing of veteran trainer Robert Levine on Thursday saddened his many friends throughout the local racetrack community. It also left the status of his Grade 2 stakes winner Jill Robin L, a 3-year-old filly Levine owned in partnership with Robert Braunsdorf up, in the air.
NEW ORLEANS - Cheering fans at Fair Grounds waved their green plastic derby hats on Thursday as track announcer Tom Dooley intoned, "It's a St. Patrick's Day win for Skip Irish!"
Dooley has had plenty of practice with variations on that call this year, because Thursday's victory was the fifth of 2005 for Skip Irish, a turf-loving 4-year-old son of Skip Away.
"This call was the most fun [of the five Skip Irish wins]," said Dooley, "but this is a good horse. He won easily on the dirt, too."
Trainer Todd Pletcher has decided to run Proud Accolade in the $100,000 Rushaway Stakes next Saturday at Turfway Park instead of the track's marquee event, the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes.
Pletcher said he made the decision because Proud Accolade only recently got over a minor illness that forced the colt to miss the March 12 Louisiana Derby, and he wanted a race easier than the Lane's End. Pletcher also said the 1 1/16-mile distance of the Rushaway is preferable to that of the Lane's End, which is a sixteenth of a mile longer.
For David Cassidy to steal away a good horse at auction from deep-pocketed owners like Sheikh Mohammed or Coolmore Stud, something unusual has to happen. In March 2004, at the Ocala Breeders Sales of 2-year-olds-in-training, something unusual did.
STICKNEY, Ill. - A Friday trip to Hawthorne was half-successful for the Kentucky-based horses of trainer Bernie Flint. The odds-on, Flint-trained favorite Im a Dixie Girl finished a distant second in the $42,000 Parts Unknown Stakes, but Ask the Lord rebounded from three sub-par efforts to win a high-end optional claiming race to begin the day.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - It's rare nowadays to see two of the leading Kentucky Derby hopefuls meet as early as March. And when it does happen, the venue is likely to be in Southern California, Florida, or New York.
But on Saturday, Oaklawn Park will be the setting when Afleet Alex, ranked No. 1 on Daily Racing Form's Derby Watch, faces Rockport Harbor, who is tied for third on the list. The pair is expected to meet again in the $1 million Arkansas Derby and ultimately in the Kentucky Derby.
