Manor Downs, a small track in Austin, Texas, is scheduled to open Saturday after its meet was delayed a week by the Texas Racing Commission to give the track time to repair damage to the racing surface.
The first card of the mixed meet will feature trials for the Grade 3, $50,000-added Longhorn Futurity for Quarter Horses. The finale is scheduled for March 19.
Rider Leslie Mawing grabbed the headlines last week when he reached the 1,000-win plateau, but Wilson Dieguez has quietly dominated the jockey standings this meet.
Through Tuesday, Dieguez had 84 wins, 17 more than last year's leading rider, Mick Ruis. The top five is rounded out by Scott Stevens (58), Jorge Carreno (55), and Kyle Kaenel (55). Last year, Dieguez finished the meet second in the standings with 115 wins, 17 wins behind Ruis.
Favorites Saint Liam and Rock Hard Ten drew the two outside posts in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Handicap. Saint Liam drew post 11 and Rock Hard Ten drew post 10 in the field of 11. Also in the program, Declan's Moon will likely go favored in a field of six in the Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Catalina Stakes. Declan's Moon drew post 6, directly outside of his two main rivals, Going Wild and Spanish Chestnut.
The complete fields for the two races:
Santa Anita Handicap
ARCADIA, Calif. - The trend over the last several years of the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap losing top handicap horses to the $6 million Dubai World Cup has been reversed this year.
When the Big Cap is run on Saturday, the race will feature the 2005 major California stakes winners Lundy's Liability and Rock Hard Ten as well as the Grade 1-winning Florida shipper Saint Liam. In past years, one - or all of them - might have been kept out of the race and sent to the Dubai World Cup, which will be run March 26.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Top horses are expected to look good when they work an easy half-mile, so it was no surprise Tuesday when Rock Hard Ten - expected to start as the second betting choice behind Saint Liam on Saturday in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap - sailed through a sharp team workout under Gary Stevens.
Trainer Richard Mandella worked Rock Hard Ten in company with Panama Lane, who provided Rock Hard Ten with an easy target.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It has not been a good season to be a grass horse. One of the wettest winters on record has wreaked havoc on all turf levels, including the two-other-than allowance class that runs in the feature Thursday at Santa Anita.
The mile grass race attracted a full field, including Super Strut and Sea Harbor. While Super Strut was fortunate enough to run twice this winter on grass, Sea Harbor has been stuck with nowhere to run except the main track.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Two questions immediately come to mind regarding Papi Chullo, a California-based maiden owned by Greg Norman who has traveled all the way to south Florida for Saturday's $250,000 . Is the owner the Greg Norman of professional golf fame, and why run a maiden in a Grade 2 Kentucky Derby prep?
The answer to question number one became obvious immediately upon visiting Papi Chullo Tuesday morning in Barn 8 at Gulfstream, where Norman was watching his horse being walked around the shed by trainer Salvador Gonzalez.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - After facing Grade 3 competition in his last two starts, Spruce Run will get some welcome class relief and may prove the one to beat in Thursday's wide-open $39,000 optional claiming race at 1 1/16 miles on the grass.
A 7-year-old son of Repriced, Spruce Run concluded his 2004 campaign with a fifth-place finish after leading to midstretch in the Grade 3 Cliff Hanger Handicap at The Meadowlands. In his first start this year, he finished eighth following an eventful trip in the Grade 3 Appleton Handicap here Feb. 12.
NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Dallas Stewart has decided to replace Robby Albarado with Jerry Bailey on Storm Surge for the March 12 Louisiana Derby. Storm Surge won the Lecomte Stakes and finished third in the Risen Star with Albarado, the leading jockey at Fair Grounds, in the irons. "Robby did a great job on Storm Surge," said Stewart. "The decision is not a knock on anybody."
Why the switch to Bailey?
"He's Jerry Bailey," Stewart said. "We're hoping his big-race experience will be a factor in the Louisiana Derby."
NEW ORLEANS - Trainers Mark Frostad and Michael Doyle are good friends. In fact, Frostad joined Doyle in the winner's circle when the Doyle-trained Explosive Lad won a race earlier this meet. But their relationship turns into a friendly rivalry on Thursday when each of them saddles a horse in an extremely competitive $30,000 turf allowance for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds.
The Frostad-trained has 7 top-three finishes in 11 turf starts (3-0-4). She ran third in both of her local starts.
