OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Since winning the Florida Derby with Friends Lake in March, business has been quite slow for trainer John Kimmel.
"Slow is not the word," Kimmel said. "Nonexistent."
But times they are a changing.
Since Nov. 6, Kimmel has won five races at Aqueduct. More importantly, four of those wins have come with 2-year-olds, giving Kimmel hope as 2005 approaches. Of his last nine winners in New York, six have been 2-year-olds.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - At the start of the year, trainer Richard Mandella was loaded with quality 3-year-olds. Action This Day and Minister Eric had finished one-two in the previous fall's Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Halfbridled was coming off an unbeaten championship year with her victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
It all looked so bright. But none of those three distinguished themselves this spring. Halfbridled, whose propensity to tie up kept her out of the Kentucky Oaks, was recently retired. Neither Action This Day nor Minister Eric has raced since the Kentucky Derby.
Sam Houston Race Park in Houston has raced almost nonstop this year, and its whirlwind schedule gets even more hectic on Wednesday with the opening of a 69-night meet for Thoroughbreds. Before the week is out, the track will have hosted one of its biggest programs, the annual $625,000 Texas Champions Day on Saturday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Heading into Wednesday night's program at Woodbine, there are just 20 days of racing scheduled to be run at the meeting, which winds up Dec. 12.
In addition to the regular fare, there will be plenty of interest on the jockey and trainer fronts in the waning weeks.
Todd Kabel, who rode five winners on Sunday to bring his total for the meeting to 148, holds a seemingly insurmountable lead of 29 over second-place Patrick Husbands.
Kabel is named on just two horses Wednesday, while Husbands does not have a call.
CHICAGO - For all but the most hardcore Chicago horsemen, the first of December marks the time to head south for the winter. There are few prizes left at Hawthorne now that the six statebred-restricted stakes of Illinois Day have come and gone.
The Illinois-bred stakes horses ran Saturday. Now they are scattering in the wind, some to Fair Grounds, others to farms for rest, but a few will show up here again. Silver Bid, who bounced back from one of the worst races of his career to win the Lightning Jet Handicap on Saturday, could return next month in an open allowance race.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After briefly considering other alternatives, trainer Paulo Lobo has come to the most logical choice on where to next run his championship-caliber sprinter, Pico Central.
"We will run in the Cigar Mile," Lobo said Sunday after Pico Central worked six furlongs in 1:14.20 at Hollywood Park.
Lobo had also considered this Saturday's Grade 1 De Francis Memorial Dash at Pimlico, but decided the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Nov. 27 was the best spot for Pico Central. He won the Grade 1 Carter Handicap over the same Aqueduct main track earlier this year.
The Meadowlands Racetrack ended its 2004 Thoroughbred meet Saturday night with increases in ontrack and combined handle while experiencing a slight decline in attendance.
The 32-date meet saw the total handle wagered on Meadowlands races improve 5.7 percent over last year to average $2,204,704 daily. Ontrack handle on Meadowlands cards improved 2.7 percent to $418,276. Attendance, however, dipped 3 percent to 4,113.
ALBANY, Calif. - The 2-year-old filly A Lil' Alimony attracted plenty of local media attention when she won her debut last Wednesday. It's not that she is especially talented, rather it's her name and ownership group that made her a star on television sports reports.
A Lil' Alimony is owned by the First Wives Club, five divorced women whose jockey silks have a picture of five witches riding on a broom.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - One for Rose and Wando both displayed their championship form here last Saturday.
While One for Rose was doing her usual thing romping in the Maple Leaf, Wando was continuing in his new direction while scoring impressively in the Mt. Sassafras.
Wando, Canada's Horse of the Year and outstanding 3-year-old male in 2003, won his first stakes since concluding his sweep of the Canadian Triple Crown in the Breeders' here in August 2003.
Magoo's Magic rebounded from a dismal New York debut in the Cowdin Stakes by leading every step of the way to take the $82,950 Huntington Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths at Aqueduct.
Storm Creek Rising chased Magoo's Magic around the track and finished second, one length ahead of Tani Maru, who encountered traffic trouble while finishing third.
