DEL MAR, Calif. - Belleski's streak of eight consecutive finishes in the top three ended last November, when she ran last of 14 in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park.
The resounding defeat came with an excuse: She emerged from the race with an ankle injury.
On Friday, Belleski, 5, makes her first start of 2004 in the $75,000 Daisycutter Handicap at Del Mar. Trainer John Sadler considers the Daisycutter a launch to more important stakes in the summer and fall.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Trainer Greg Tracy, who won the race with Taiaslew in 2002, will have three chances in a bid to win his second $40,000 Edmonton Juvenile for male 2-year-olds at Northlands Park on Friday evening.
This six-furlong sprint is the first stakes action for juveniles in Alberta this year.
The entry of Dakota Duke and Golden Hunt, both owned by Stanley Ryan, and the uncoupled Alarmingly Charmin, owned by Peggy Steffes, are the three Tracy hopefuls.
AUBURN, Wash. - Duke of Kent will attempt to make it five victories in a row on Friday when he heads a compact field of six in the second leg of the Harley Hoppe and Associates Marathon Series, which will be run under $10,000 starter allowance conditions at 1 1/4 miles.
The Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission has adopted a plan to test for more than 250 prohibited substances under a version of the so-called supertesting program that has been delayed on a national basis.
The commission voted this week to adopt the plan, which will require horses racing in graded stakes and other major races in Delaware to be tested for 255 substances, according to John Wayne, the administrator of racing at the state's racing commission. Under Delaware rules, Delaware Park, the only Thoroughbred track in the state, will pay for the tests.
Thoroughbred racing will return to Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire, for one day on Labor Day weekend, when the track has scheduled three turf races on Sunday, Sept. 5.
Rockingham had been the site of Thoroughbred racing until the end of its 2002 meeting, but the track switched to Standardbred cards beginning last year.
Ed Callahan, Rockingham's vice president and general manager, said in a statement Wednesday that the three races in September "may be the beginning of Rockingham adding additional Thoroughbred dates in 2005."
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Opening day of the 2004 Saratoga meet was a prime example of the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Yes, security is tighter, so tight in fact that Saratoga socialite Marylou Whitney had a difficult time getting on the backstretch to see her horses, which include Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone. Yes, there were 1,300 slot machines in operation at the harness track across the street.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was 1992, and John Velazquez was going home to Puerto Rico. Two years in the country, in a slump at Saratoga, the 21-year-old jockey was gone.
Until his heart said no.
Not necessarily his heart for racing, but his heart for trainer Leo O'Brien's then 21-year-old daughter Leona.
"It was my roughest year," Velazquez said. "Everything went wrong, I was having trouble with my agent. I wasn't even going to finish the meet, I was going home. I was going out with Leona, and that was what stopped me from going. I was in love."
CARENCRO, La. - Members of the local racing community, along with officials at Evangeline Downs Racetrack, have joined forces to create a relief program that will assist employees in all sectors of the racing industry.
The Racing Employees Assistance Program, or REAP, was patterned after the Backside Benevolent Fund (BBF), a non-profit organization formed years ago at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La. The program will offer relief such as financial assistance for medical care, food, housing, education, recreational activities, and job training.
Topango returned to her Retama Park base Sunday after another successful invasion of Louisiana Downs. She won the $50,000 Senorita Stakes Saturday and earlier in the meet captured the $50,000 Chapel Belle Stakes.
She could return to Louisiana Downs and run on the Super Derby undercard Sept. 25.
"We're thinking about the DeBartolo," said John Locke, who trains Topango for HSB Racing.
The Marie P. DeBartolo Oaks will be run over 1 1/16 miles on turf and carries a purse of $75,000.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - Jockey Freddie Mata, Great Lakes Downs' leading rider when he was injured in a training accident June 15, is close to returning to the saddle, agent Frank Garoufalis said Tuesday.
Garoufalis said Mata will have a cast removed from his ankle Saturday and is expected to be back riding within a week after.
Mata, a native of Mexico, was the leading rider when he cracked a bone in his left ankle while schooling a 2-year-old in the gate. He had 49 victories at the time, winning with 25 percent of his mounts, and was 12 wins in front of Terry Houghton.
