SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Azeri, the two-time defending champion older filly or mare, turned heads Thursday morning with a brilliant six-furlong workout in 1:11.66 over the Oklahoma training track. Azeri, winner of the Go for Wand in her last start, is pointing to the Grade 1 $400,000 Personal Ensign Handicap here Aug. 27.
The New York Racing Association clockers timed her in fractions of 12.40 seconds, 24.20, 35.80, and caught her galloping out seven furlongs in 1:26.60.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Ticker Tape was a 12-1 outsider when she emerged from the pack in early stretch of the Grade 1 Hollywood Oaks last month and scored an upset. The race marked Ticker Tape's third stakes win, but first in a Grade 1.
Saturday, Ticker Tape will be out to prove she can duplicate that performance in the $300,000 Del Mar Oaks.
"You always worry that people will think that race is a fluke," trainer Jim Cassidy said of the American Oaks. "She hasn't done anything wrong since we got her. I know she's a good filly, but I don't know how good."
DEL MAR, Calif. - What a difference a horse makes. Had Ema Bovary entered Saturday's $150,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap at Del Mar, the field would have numbered about four, and the favorite would have been odds-on. But since Ema Bovary is passing the Grade 3 race, seven of the remaining eight runners nominated to the race entered, and bettors might have to go more than one horse deep to get through the penultimate leg of the pick six.
AUBURN, Wash. - Northern California stakes winner Adreamisborn led the charge of invaders for Sunday's Grade 3, $250,000 Longacres Mile, arriving at Emerald Downs late Wednesday afternoon following a flight from the Bay Area.
Adreamisborn, a Jerry Hollendorfer-trained 5-year-old, was accompanied by stablemates Uninhibited Song, who will contest Saturday's $100,000 Washington Breeders' Cup Oaks, and Hippogator, who will go in Sunday's $100,000 Emerald Breeders' Cup Distaff.
DEL MAR, Calif. - It was perhaps the greatest performance in the history of Del Mar, certainly the best performance in California since Spectacular Bid's West Coast tour-de-force in 1980.
When Candy Ride won last year's Pacific Classic, he set a track record of 1:59.11 for 1 1/4 miles, earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 123 - the biggest number of the year, for any division - and ran his record to 6 for 6. There was little doubt he was the best horse in training in the country.
He has not raced since.
The better horses from Kentucky are regularly shipped to Saratoga to be tested in prestigious stakes. Only the rare exception makes the trip to Ellis Park after running well in New York. That is the move Angel Trumpet makes Saturday when she heads the $100,000 Anna M. Fisher Debutante at Ellis Park, one race after finishing second in the Grade 2 Schuylerville.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Relaxing Green is typical of many northern California turf horses who face either imposed layoffs or are asked to run on dirt when racing switches to the fair circuit.
Both of Relaxing Green's career victories have come on the turf, where she also has four seconds and one third in 10 starts. But come summer, turf specialists such as Relaxing Green have nowhere to run for two months. That will change next year with the installation of a turf course at Santa Rosa.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Joe Orseno hedged his position in the $60,000 Twin Lights Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth Park with the entry of Grinch and Earthquake Ride.
Orseno will run both if the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-old fillies remains on the turf.
Should it shift to the main track - a distinct possibility during an ongoing rainy stretch on the Jersey Shore - Grinch will be Orseno's lone runner.
MIAMI - Trip handicappers will be eagerly awaiting Saturday's $100,000 Aspidistra Handicap at Calder and a chance to bet on Formal Miss in the one-mile turf stakes for fillies and mares.
Formal Miss was beaten a head by All the Honor three weeks earlier in the Georgia Peaches Stakes, but most observers, including her trainer Paul Maxwell, thought Formal Miss would have won the race if she hadn't been blocked and bottled up in traffic while full of run around the final turn.
In 2002, owner Sondra Bender and trainer Larry Murray were an extremely potent combination, winning 13 of 43 races and $927,243.
Although Bender and Murray are still a team, their current numbers have sagged badly. So far in 2004, they are 0 for 11.
Murray, whose horses exceeded $1 million in earnings in both 2002 and 2003, is just 4 for 68 overall, his worst season since he went 1 for 29 in 1988.
