Following a last-place trial finish, Hawkish will try to regain his championship form against several sharp 3-year-olds in the Grade 1, $173,000 Golden State Derby on Saturday night at Los Alamitos.
Last summer, Hawkish was Quarter Horse racing's undisputed star after he set a track record with his victory in the Grade 1 Kindergarten and romped to a 1 3/4-length win in the Ed Burke Futurity. He then won the Grade 1 PCQHRA Breeders Futurity on Oct. 4 to secure the 2-year-old colt championship.
Trainer John Hammes holds a strong hand in the Grade 3, $84,825 Rocky Mountain Futurity on Saturday at Arapahoe Park with four horses in the finals, including fastest-qualifier Nitschke.
Nitschke rolled to a 2 1/4-length trial win on July 31 for his second victory in four career starts, earning the top qualifying time of 17.368 seconds for 350 yards.
Azoom, who started his career in Mexico, will be the choice to win the $283,422 TQHA Sale Futurity, a stakes restricted to 2003 TQHA sale graduates, at Sam Houston Race Park on Friday night.
Azoom raced to his second victory in three U.S. starts when he won his Sale Futurity trial by an overwhelming 3 1/4 lengths. His time of 17.587 seconds was the fastest from eight trials on July 31. His only setback in the United States was a runner-up effort in the TQHA Sires Futurity.
A rematch between Frostys Money Man and Gone Celebrating in the Grade 2, $80,100 MBNA America East Challenge heads a card dominated by Challenge stakes at Delta Downs on Sunday.
Three-time derby winner Frostys Money Man scored his first win as a 4-year-old in his East Challenge trial when he defeated Gone Celebrating by a half-length in 21.464 seconds for 440 yards. Gone Celebrating has finished second in each of his three 2004 starts after concluding his 2003 season with five consecutive wins, including the Grade 1 Championship at Sunland Park.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - The quality of racing picks up at the Bay Meadows Fair on Friday, as five older sprinters meet in the day's feature, a six-furlong, $50,000 optional claimer.
Twentythreejaybird, who has been meeting the likes of El Dorado Shooter in recent starts and hasn't seen the lead he likes so much, looks as if he will be the one to catch in the tough sprint.
The race will mark the return of Alphabetic, who won 2 of 4 starts in 2003 but has been on the sidelines for more than a year since running fourth in the James Lyttle Memorial at Santa Rosa on Aug. 1, 2003.
Uncle Clip, who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90 when he defeated Louisiana-bred maidens in his last start, moves into the entry-level allowance ranks Friday at Louisiana Downs.
A six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up bred in Louisiana, the race has drawn a competitive group of eight horses, including Dukes Shawklit, who earned a Beyer Figure of 87 when he defeated statebreds in his debut in February, and Neon Leon.
Uncle Clip led throughout for a 2 1/2-length win in his last start and figures to be prominent again from his rail post Friday.
The $1 million Delta Jackpot on Dec. 4 will be the richest of 46 stakes worth a cumulative $4 million during the upcoming Thoroughbred meet at Delta Downs in Vinton, La. The track will run 101 days, from Oct. 1 to April 2, 2005.
Purses during the meet will average $175,000 a card, said Chris Warren, director of racing at Delta. An additional 15 race dates have been added to the meet at the request of horsemen, he said. Last year during the 86-night meet, daily purses averaged $194,000.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Fairmount Park is a scrappy little oval with more than its fair share of down-on-their-luck $3,200 claiming horses. But such a dreary scenario hasn't deterred a handful of savvy Fairmount barns from putting a shine on their home track by shipping their more talented Thoroughbreds far and wide in hopes of stealing out-of-state stakes races.
Gold Storm is headed to the $150,000 Arlington Breeders' Cup Sprint at Arlington Park on Aug. 28 after improving his record to 6 for 10 with his victory in last month's $40,000 J.R. Straus Memorial Stakes at Retama Park.
Gold Storm seems to be improving with each start. Earlier this year he finished a troubled third to Beau's Town in the $75,000 Ford Express at Lone Star Park, and followed that race with back-to-back wins in a tough Lone Star allowance and the Straus. For each of his last two starts, he has earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 102.
The biggest local prep for next month's Grade 3, $200,000 Cradle Stakes will be run as the 11th race on Saturday at River Downs. As in years past, the Cradle prep, an open allowance for 2-year-olds, offers a $25,000 purse and will be run at a mile and 70 yards.
The Cradle prep has not, in fact, served as a stepping-stone to victory in the Cradle in recent years. Even Harlan's Holiday, the Ohio-bred who started at River before his victory in the 2001 Cradle, bypassed the prep in favor of a statebred stakes.