ALBANY, Calif. - Hitting Sunday's pick six at Golden Gate Fields with a five-day, $233,306 carryover will be hard.
But it can't be any harder than it was Monday when every ticket had been eliminated within the first three legs after the winners paid $143, $80.40, and $82.60. Even when sanity returned with winners at odds of 5-2, 7-2, and 9-2 in the final three legs, it was a day in which no favorite won.
MIAMI - Quackers Appeal does not have the high-profile connections of many of his nine rivals in Sunday's $40,000 Santa Claus Stakes. As a result, he could offer some real betting value in the race, a wide-open overnight stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
A locally based horse trained by Steve Dwoskin, Quackers Appeal is part of a field that includes Old Forester, who is trained by Bill Mott; Wilcox Ridge, who is trained by Todd Pletcher; and Cockleshell, who has been vanned down from Maryland by trainer Michael Dickinson.
NEW ORLEANS - The two divisions of the Louisiana Futurity, the feature races on Sunday's card at Fair Grounds, offer one last shot for 2-year-old Louisiana-bred colts and fillies to win a stakes race before they all turn into 3-year-olds Jan. 1.
NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Neil Howard has a barn full of classy runners at Fair Grounds, and the bettors have bet many of his starters down to favoritism only to rip up their tickets.
Howard's inscrutable demeanor gives nothing away, and he is clearly not trying to win the training title, but his horses are gaining valuable conditioning over the Fair Grounds surfaces.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland Meadows fans will get a double dose of stakes action Sunday, when the track will run the $10,000 City of Roses Handicap for fillies and mares and the $20,000 Juvenile Mile.
Trainer Jim Fergason holds a strong hand in both races. He will send out 3-year-old Quiz the Maid in the one-mile City of Roses and has a pair of solid contenders in the Juvenile Mile.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Abtastic clearly ran an exceptional race in the Os West Oregon Futurity at Portland Meadows on Oregon Championship Day, finishing a head behind Wice O Kat despite stretching out from 5 1/2 furlongs to a mile off his debut win a month earlier.
His effort appears even more spectacular once trainer Dave Runyon explained what it took to get Abtastic into the $41,780 race on Dec. 11.
NEW ORLEANS - Chance Dance won the at Fair Grounds Thursday with a last-to-first rally under jockey Carlos Marquez Jr.
The race for 3-year-old and up fillies and mares at 1 1/16th miles was originally carded for turf but was switched to dirt, leaving a field of seven.
Considering the circumstances, the number is huge. , a 2-year-old filly making her career debut at Hoosier Park on Nov. 10, earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 94, a figure that compares favorably with some of the best in her division this year and one that had the cell phone of trainer Joan Scott ringing frequently in the race aftermath.
CHICAGO - By name, Iceplosion seems ideally suited to Sunday's featured seventh race at chilly Hawthorne, and on form, Iceplosion looks at least as strong.
late run has left him just short of victory in his last two starts, but come Sunday he could break through in this third-level sprint allowance with a $35,000 claiming option.
Hunch players searching for some holiday cheer ought to take a look at Sunday's entries for the Christmas Stakes, a $75,000 six-furlong sprint at Mountaineer Race Track. The name Peace and Joy practically jumps off the page.
In addition to being aptly named for a race in honor of Christmas, the 5-year-old Peace and Joy has decent credentials. He has won his last two starts and owns a 4-for-6 lifetime record at Mountaineer.
For traditional handicappers, however, it's hard to get past Danieltown.
