HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Oaklawn Park opened its 101st meet on Friday under sunny skies and with a roaring crowd of 22,831. Temperatures ranged in the mid-60's, and the grandstand was overflowing with patrons enjoying a balmy day for January.
Even the horses benefited from the warm temperatures, as the field for the $50,000 - which was won by Razor - was saddled in the infield. Normally, stakes early in the meet are saddled in the indoor paddock because of cold weather.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Following the lead of several other tracks around the country, Gulfstream Park will begin prerace testing for milkshakes on Jan. 27. The testing will be done under house rules and not in conjunction with the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, which regulates racing in the state.
Gulfstream will test all horses in any Grade 1 or Grade 2 race run the remainder of the 2005 meet, as well as all horses in up to three randomly selected races per day. The prerace tests will be administered in a special stall set up in the receiving barn.
In separate meetings with horsemen on Wednesday and with the Oregon Racing Commission on Thursday, Magna Entertainment's chief counsel, Scott Daruty, said the future of racing at Portland Meadows is in jeopardy unless certain changes in the track's business environment are made.
Daruty said Magna has lost significant sums in each of the four seasons it has operated Portland Meadows, and that there is no reasonable prospect of turning the track's financial picture around without changes.
Jockey Jorge Chavez rode the 4,000th winner of his career when he guided A Rizzi Rueben to victory in Friday's at Gulfstream Park. Chavez had gotten his 3,999th winner in the previous race aboard Snug Harbour.
Chavez, 43, won the 1999 Eclipse Award as the nation's best jockey and has won 12 riding titles at New York Racing Association tracks. He has had his career slowed by injuries suffered at Gulfstream Park the past two winters. He won 119 races last year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Traci Girl, who closed out last year in sharp form after receiving a trainer change to Bruce Levine, turns back from a route to six furlongs and will have to catch the speedy Electrical Carlita in Sunday's eighth race. Or it could be Thursday's eighth race, depending on what Mother Nature had in store for the New York metropolitan area over the weekend.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Todd Pletcher transformed Chilean-bred Host into a two-time graded stakes winner in the United States in 2004. Pletcher is hoping to have similar success this year with his newest Chilean-bred acquisition, Isola Piu Bella, who looks like the horse to beat when she launches her U.S. career in Sunday's $60,000 Banshee Breeze Stakes. The 1 1/8-mile Banshee Breeze drew a full field of 12 fillies and mares.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Bill Cesare has been pointing Second of June for next Saturday's $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic for several months. Cesare circled the date on his calendar before his star horse even launched his comeback late last year after a 10-month vacation.
But barring a late scratch from the Florida contingent or two from the Californians, Cesare and the Florida-bred Second of June will find themselves on the outside looking in when entries for the Classic and the seven other Sunshine Million races are drawn on Monday.
ALBANY, Calif. - High percentage trainer John Martin might have the ones to beat in both Sunday's co-features at Golden Gate Fields.
Martin sends out a freshened against five rivals in a first-level allowance for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
The Martin-trained I Love Racing, who steps up to first-level allowance company off a pair of claiming victories, looms the one to beat, in a field of 11 in a six-furlong sprint.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Taste of Paradise will be out to prove that his upset win in the Vernon Underwood Stakes last month was not a fluke when he starts in Sunday's $150,000 Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita.
Until the Grade 3 Underwood at Hollywood Park on Dec. 5, Taste of Paradise was considered best in long sprints or races at a mile or farther, an opinion supported by his front-running win in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles in August 2003.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Alex Solis, who has not ridden since suffering a broken vertebrae in a spill at Del Mar in late July, worked horses at Santa Anita on Friday, a day after receiving doctor's approval to resume exercise.
Solis was aboard horses for trainers Richard Mandella and Jeff Mullins. Solis, 40, said he plans to take his time preparing for a comeback and is aiming to resume riding in early February.
"I want to take the next two or three weeks to work horses and get my timing down," he said. "I want to do it right."
