PORTLAND, Ore. - Rose's Thistle, who ran second in seven straight races before scoring in her last outing, will try to begin a win streak in Sunday's feature at Portland Meadows.
The six-furlong race is the sixth of nine live races and will match eight 3-year-old fillies, each eligible to be claimed from $12,500 to $10,000.
Ramon Gonzalez, one of the leading trainers at Sunland Park, began a yearlong suspension Friday after several of his runners tested positive for the banned substance naproxin. According to track stewards, Gonzalez had six positives, each of which can bring a maximum 60-day suspension. Gonzalez was given the maximum on each, bringing the suspension to 360 days. Naproxin is an anti-inflammatory/pain reliever, found in such over-the-counter drugs as Aleve, and as a Class 4 drug in New Mexico it is a banned substance in racing.
The Tampa Bay Downs exercise rider and jockey who was arrested Thursday for carrying an electrical device in the paddock has been barred from Tampa Bay Downs, the track's general manager, Peter Berube, said Friday.
The rider, Larry Mejias, remained in the Hillsborough County jail Friday after being charged that morning with cheating and attempting to prearrange the outcome of a horse race, two Class 3 felonies in Florida. According to the sheriff's office, Mejias had not posted a $4,000 bond as of late Friday afternoon.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainers John Ward Jr. and Rusty Arnold could have waited for a second-level allowance race for their promising 3-year-old fillies Little Money Down and Letgomyecho, both of whom have already posted first-level allowance victories here this winter.
Instead, they have decided not to wait any longer before testing the waters and sending their young speedsters up against the mighty Maddalena in next Saturday's Grade 2 Stonerside Forward Gal Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Amazing Buy, purchased by Paraneck Stable last February for $350,000, goes for her fourth straight win when she heads a field of six in Sunday's Busher Stakes at Aqueduct.
Under the allowance conditions of the $75,000 stakes for 3-year-old fillies, Amazing Buy will shoulder 122 pounds - two more than Pelham Bay, and four more than Ms. Litigator, Winning Season, Neverlacken, and Pretty Partisan.
The unbeaten Cajun Pepper may be the baddest 3-year-old on the circuit, but that hasn't scared away the new shooters who are shipping in to take a swipe at him in Sunland's $104,800 on Sunday. The Borderland, which serves as a prep for the meet's marquee event, the $500,000 WinStar Derby on April 2, has lured a field of 12.
The 1 1/16-mile Borderland is also the first leg of a Sunland bonus series, with a $500,000 prize for the owner of the horse who can sweep the Borderland Derby, WinStar Derby, and Kentucky Derby.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - The San Mateo Planning Commission on Thursday voted down two plans to develop the land on which Bay Meadows sits.
The 3-2 decision at the end of a six-hour meeting on Wednesday night rejected a development plan by the City of San Mateo, called the "San Mateo Rail Corridor Transit-Oriented Development," as well as a separate development plan for the 83.5-acre Bay Meadows track by the track owner, the Bay Meadows Land Co.
Opponents of the development plans raised concerns about traffic and also argued on behalf of Bay Meadows's historic status.
STICKNEY, Ill. - There are horses who scarcely want to get out of bed in the morning. They shamble around the barn, and have to be pushed to go through their paces if daily training requires anything more than a routine gallop.
Then there is Storm the Beach.
Is there a better work horse at Hawthorne Race Course?
"I don't think so," said Jimmy DiVito, Storm the Beach's trainer. "He's very aggressive out there."
Trainer Pat Byrne said Magna Graduate will be shipped Sunday from south Florida to the Trackside training facility here and will be in the lineup of the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial Saturday at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
Magna Graduate finished third to High Fly in his last start, the Jan. 8 Aventura Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Byrne said he hopes to use the Battaglia as a springboard to the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes, the annual Turfway showcase that will be run three weeks later.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Daydreaming made a slow but steady ascent toward the top of a very deep and talented 3-year-old filly division during the second half of 2004. This year, trainer Shug McGaughey is hopeful Daydreaming will complete that climb.
begins her 2005 campaign in Saturday's $100,000 Sabin Handicap at Gulfstream Park. The 1 1/8-mile fixture for fillies and mares drew a field of six and serves as a major prep for the Grade 2 Rampart Handicap on March 26.
