INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Western Hemisphere's unmistakable preference for the main track is one reason she will be favored to win the $85,000-added Cat's Cradle Handicap on Sunday at Hollywood Park.
Secondly, the 7 1/2-furlong Cat's Cradle plays to Western Hemisphere's strength. "The distance is a good distance for her," trainer Bob Baffert said, adding "the farther she goes, the better she is going to be."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It's next weekend when Hollywood Park is running its two stakes preps for the Hollywood Futurity and Hollywood Starlet. But this weekend holds significant interest, too, since several promising horses with designs on those season-ending 2-year-old stakes will compete in a pair of allowance races on Sunday's card.
ALBANY, Calif. - Two fillies who blossomed on the Bay Meadows turf course will try to carry that form to Golden Gate Fields on Sunday in the $50,000-added Star Ball Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
The first stakes of the meeting, the Star Ball Handicap was originally scheduled for opening day, Wednesday, but was postponed after it failed to fill.
Nine fillies and mares signed up for the race, including Midwife and Tricky Surf, both of whom scored three wins over the turf at Bay Meadows.
Gulfstream Park has begun construction on a new chute to its rebuilt 1 1/8-mile main track, which will allow the track to card one-turn one-mile races when the 2005 meeting begins on Jan. 3.
Gulfstream's main track was enlarged after the end of the 2004 season from one mile to 1 1/8 miles. The configuration would have allowed one-turn races to be run up to only 7 1/2 furlongs. The new chute, approximately 150 yards in length, has alleviated that problem. Two-turn races will be run at distances beginning at 1 1/8 miles.
MIAMI - Rosemary Homeister Jr., one of the winningest female jockeys in the country for the past decade, has decided to hang up her tack.
Homeister, 32, has not ridden for a month. She made her retirement official on Friday, although said she has been contemplating the decision for nearly two years. Homeister ends her career with 1,726 victories.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Hawthorne will reduce its racing week to four days during December, declining the option to extend the current five-day racing week through the end of the year.
The track's decision comes despite an excellent average number of starters per race at this meet, which began in late September. Through this week, Hawthorne was averaging 8.92 runners in each race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The race for juvenile champion remains wide open, so it's only fitting that the same thing can be said about Sunday's $75,000-added Huntington Stakes at Aqueduct.
The six-furlong Huntington drew a field of nine 2-year-old sprinters, and it should come as no surprise that two of the leading contenders are emerging from last-out maiden victories for Todd Pletcher and Nick Zito.
ANDERSON, Ind. - Hoosier Park canceled its 12-race program Friday night after some members of the jockey colony refused to ride just prior to the first race. According to track steward Gary Wilfert, the jockeys refused to ride in protest of what they believe is inadequate accident insurance and the lack of a safety rail.
Fourteen riders were banned from Churchill Downs this week after they threatened to boycott over the insurance issue. Churchill Downs Inc. is majority owner of Hoosier Park.
Jockey Cindy Noll might have a future as a political handicapper. Before tracks in Oklahoma secured electronic gaming in the general election earlier this month, Noll and partners had already purchased a 160-acre training center near Remington Park. Her investment now looks golden with gaming expected to produce an additional $30 million a year for purses in Oklahoma.
"It was a gamble," Noll, 42, said of buying the property. "We were up all night watching the votes and hoping it would come in our favor, and it did."
Trainer Steve Asmussen, who has won with six of his last eight starters at Sunland Park, can pick up his second stakes win of this young meet on Sunday with Two Down Automatic.
Two Down Automatic is one of seven 3-year-olds in the $53,100 Sunland Park Fall Thoroughbred Derby. Others in the 6 1/2-furlong race include Go Kitty Go, winner of the $105,000 Borderland Derby in February, and Skip and Go, a 12 1/4-length winner of the Colorado Derby.
