OZONE PARK, N.Y. - As part of his record-setting season, Steve Asmussen won 19 races and had a 25-percent win rate in New York from May through Sunday. Now, Asmussen will see what he can do here the other five months of the year.
For the first time, Asmussen will maintain a New York string during the winter. He will have approximately 30 horses stabled at Belmont Park for the upcoming winter meet at Aqueduct. Aqueduct's inner track opens Wednesday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Conventional class handicapping points to Grade 1 winner Noches de Rosa as the most likely winner of the $60,000 Hermosa Beach Handicap at Hollywood Park on Thanksgiving.
It is an untimely day to break with tradition, but skeptical horseplayers usually distrust horses that are overqualified. When a Grade 1 winner shows up in a minor stakes, it makes sense to bet against them. may win the Hermosa Beach at 1 1/2 miles on turf, but her 121-pound impost is high, and her odds are low. Seven other fillies and mares will try to beat her.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The surprise defection of Greek Sun from the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on Sunday has thrown the race into disarray and left it without a legitimate favorite. Greek Sun, winner of the Grade 2 Oak Tree Derby in his most recent start and an apparent standout in the 1 1/4-mile Hollywood Derby, will instead be sidelined for several months, trainer Bobby Frankel said Tuesday.
"He's going to have a few months off, but he'll be back," Frankel said. "He just has a little problem. He'll be all right. He might have a good 4-year-old year."
ALBANY, Calif. - On paper, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is holding all the aces for Friday's $75,000-added Forty-Niner Handicap, in which he will send out highweights Adreamisborn (119) and Yougottawanna (118).
A 5-year-old, Yougottawanna has been a star since his 2-year-old year, when he beat Officer in the Cal Cup Juvenile.
Adreamisborn, also 5, didn't win his maiden until this year, in his ninth career start, but he has since hit the board in seven of his eight starts, winning four, including the Grade 3 Longacres Mile on Aug. 22.
Ontrack and total handle on Hoosier Park's live racing product declined at this year's Thorough-bred meet, which ended Sunday.
Ontrack handle at the 59-day meet dipped 8 percent, with an average of $51,763 wagered this year. Sale of the track's simulcast signal and total average handle on the live product were both down 11 percent from last year's 70-day meet. Offtrack handle on the live races averaged $1,221,009 this year compared with $1,378,173 in 2003. The total average handle was $1,272,772 this year, down from $1,433,434.
MIAMI - D'Wildcat Speed celebrated Thanksgiving weekend last year by capping off a perfect season with a Group 1 victory at Puerto Rico's El Commandante racetrack. This Thanksgiving, D'Wildcat Speed will be looking to get her first victory since that race when she faces seven other fillies and mares in the $40,000 Pocahontas Stakes at Calder.
First post for the 11-race Thanksgiving Day card will be 11 a.m.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Greg De Gannes has never been a stranger to a good horse.
His exposure to the best of the breed began early as De Gannes grew up on Windfields Farm where his father, Rolph, was resident veterinarian for 17 years.
Then De Gannes himself became a doctor of veterinary medicine, graduating from the University of Guelph, and has been practicing that craft for 17 years. His clients often included visiting dignitaries of the equine sort, and he was in his glory when the Breeders' Cup was run here in 1996.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The fifth race on Aqueduct's Wednesday card has been moved from the turf to the dirt. The distance of the race has been changed from 1 1/16 miles to one mile, not 1 1-8 miles as reported in Wednesday's print edition of the Form.
The fifth race is the second leg of the pick six which features a carryover of $131,338.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Will she or won't she? Azeri still had not been committed to the Falls City Handicap as of Monday, with trainer D. Wayne Lukas saying the decision would come when entries were taken Tuesday morning for the Grade 2 race, to be run Thursday.
Lukas said owner Michael Paulson would have the final say on whether Azeri would accept high weight of 126 pounds in the $300,000 Falls City, which ignites the meet-closing "Big Four" weekend at Churchill Downs.
