NEW ORLEANS - Spritely Walker, winner of last year's Champions Day Classic, will try to defend his title against a tough-as-nails cast of seven challengers in Saturday's renewal of the $150,000 event, the centerpiece of Louisiana Champions Day.
The 1 1/8-mile is one of seven Thoroughbred races on Champions Day which have collectively attracted 68 horses, the cream of the crop of the Louisiana breeding industry.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Chris's Bad Boy tries to win his second consecutive Kennedy Road Stakes on Saturday, the next-to-last day of the meeting. The six-furlong Kennedy Road is worth $138,250.
Chris's Bad Boy set the track record of 1:08.05 winning the 2003 Kennedy Road by nearly seven lengths, earning a 114 Beyer Speed Figure. Following a winter vacation, he won his fifth race in a row here April 17 in the Jacques Cartier Stakes.
ALBANY, Calif. - After 45 years of being involved with training Thoroughbreds, trainer Ted West is not given to rash statements.
But he can't help but be excited by Bluesthestandard, whom he helps his son Ted H. West train.
The elder West believes Bluesthestandard will notch his 16th career victory in Saturday's $50,000-added Oakland Handicap at Golden Gate Fields and creep closer to the million-dollar mark in career earnings. He has earned $928,818.
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Os West Oregon Futurity tops a slate of four stakes at Portland Meadows on Saturday, when the track hosts Oregon Championship Day for the 13th time.
With a purse of $41,780 added, the one-mile Futurity is the richest stakes on the Portland Meadows schedule. It will offer an even bigger payday if Eighty Eighty should win.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The New York Racing Association made several noteworthy changes to its stakes program for 2005, a year in which it will host the 22nd Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Belmont Park on Oct. 29.
The most notable changes were in the 2-year-old program, where NYRA dropped the Schuylerville and Sanford - the traditional first- and second-day stakes at Saratoga - and in their place brought back the Adirondack and Saratoga Special, races that were dropped from the 2004 calendar.
Steven Duncker and Peter Karches, who served as co-COO's of the New York Racing Association for just over a year, were elected on Wednesday as co-chairmen of NYRA's Board of Trustees. The two will replace Barry Schwartz, who will step down as NYRA's chairman at the end of the year.
Duncker and Karches served as co-COO's from October 2003 - when Terry Meyocks resigned as president and COO - until last month, when Charlie Hayward was named president and CEO.
Robby Albarado got the 3,000th victory of his career Thursday when he rode Isle of Silver to win the sixth race at Fair Grounds.
Albarado, 31, is the defending champion jockey at Fair Grounds for the last two seasons and has won five riding titles at Fair Grounds overall.
"It's special to get my 3,000th victory at the Fair Grounds," he said. "The Fair Grounds has probably had the biggest impact on my career."
Albarado has also won two riding titles at Oaklawn Park and Keeneland and one at Arlington Park.
NEW ORLEANS - They're calling it the race of the day. The $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles pits two of the best Louisiana-bred fillies ever, Destiny Calls and Happy Ticket, against each other. Destiny Calls, a 4-year-old by With Approval, has won six consecutive races and has finished worse than second only once in 12 lifetime starts. Happy Ticket, a 3-year-old filly by Anet, is undefeated in six lifetime starts.
What makes this rivalry so intriguing is that both fillies are lightning fast.
MIAMI - The last time Frisky Spider raced in Florida he was taking on some of the best of his division in the Grade 1 Florida Derby. On Saturday, Frisky Spider returns to the Sunshine State in a bit more modest spot to meet a full field of 3-year-old turf specialists in Calder's $100,000 Pete Axthelm Stakes.
Andy Leggio came up in the Ninth Ward, hardscrabble New Orleans, his father the author of a racetrack tout sheet.
At age 15, Leggio started spending his days, too, at the track, working around horses, later galloping them during morning exercise.
"I grew up in the rough area," Leggio said. "I didn't grow up with any silver spoons."
Fifty-five years after hitting the track, Leggio has partnered with a Louisiana-bred filly of rare quality. There is not a rough edge about her.