CALGARY, Alberta - The first 2-year-old race of the meet comes on Wednesday, the 40th day of the stand, and it was oversubscribed with 11 entrants trying to get into the eight-horse field.
Keeatah, a California-bred filly from Dale Greenwood's shed row, has works indicating she has speed, including a bullet three-furlong move on May 19. She drew post 5.
Baywood Drive, who has a bullet drill as well, breaks just to Keeatah's outside in the 3 1/2-furlong dash.
ELMONT, N.Y. - There's nothing like four straight winners to take a trainer's mind off finishing last in the Belmont Stakes.
Todd Pletcher won the first four races on Sunday's Belmont Park card, less than 24 hours after saddling Purge to a last-place finish in Saturday's Belmont. Pletcher also had a second- and a third-place finish from six starters Sunday. Jockey John Velazquez was aboard all six Pletcher runners.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Bobby Frankel said he was a bit disappointed in Arvada's last race, when she finished a narrowly beaten second as the favorite at Hollywood Park in April. Arvada returns to race as the likely favorite in Wednesday's feature at Belmont Park.
After a frenzy of stakes activity and top-quality allowance races last week at Belmont, things quiet down considerably on Wednesday. The $46,000 eighth race is a first-level allowance race for fillies and mares. The 1 1/4-mile inner turf race drew nine runners, plus one main-track-only entry, Beauty on Duty.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Southern Image will carry 122 pounds Saturday as the highweight in the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap, the Grade 1 race that serves as the focal point of easily the most important day of the post-Kentucky Derby segment of the annual spring meet at Churchill Downs.
Southern Image, one of a handful of California-based horses expected to arrive here Tuesday, will carry one more pound than Peace Rules in the 1 1/8-mile Foster 'Cap. Peace Rules also is expected no later than Tuesday from New York.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trion Georgia has been good enough to earn nearly $300,000 in a career of just 19 races, a statistic that speaks to the solid company he has kept. With past performance lines dotted with names such as Macho Uno, Orientate, Private Horde, and Crafty Shaw, Trion Georgia's Beyer Speed Figures are also impressive, having reached triple digits on several occasions.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Almond Blossom chased Western Hemisphere without success in an allowance race on turf at Hollywood Park on May 14.
There was no shame in Almond Blossom's two-length loss at 34-1, especially after Western Hemisphere returned to finish second by a nose in the Grade 2 Honeymoon Breeders' Cup Handicap on Saturday.
Wednesday, Almond Blossom returns to Hollywood Park from trainer Billy Morey's base at Bay Meadows for a $50,000 allowance race over 1 1/8 miles on turf.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainers Richard Mandella and Mike Machowsky were too busy cheering for Smarty Jones in Saturday's Belmont Stakes to immediately realize one of the major implications of his loss to Birdstone.
Had Smarty Jones won the Belmont Stakes, the race for the Horse of the Year title would have had essentially ended with his Triple Crown success.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The magical run through the Triple Crown was over, ending with Smarty Jones's heartbreaking defeat in the Belmont Stakes.
The morning after dawned, and it was time for jockey Stewart Elliott to get back to work.
Elliott spent Saturday night after the Belmont on Long Island and drove to Monmouth Park the following morning to ride the card on a dreary, rain-soaked Sunday afternoon.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Asking the tough question is something trainers are often forced to do with young horses.
That is what Art Sherman will have to do Wednesday at Bay Meadows with unbeaten Lunar Lion, who is 2 for 2 in his career.
"It will be a tough race, but he's done everything right," Sherman said.
Tough is an understatement for Wednesday's first-level allowance sprint for 3-year-olds.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Several of the most successful sprinters at Woodbine, including near-champion Forever Grand, are among the seven entrants in Wednesday's feature at Woodbine, an $80,000 optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up.
Forever Grand was the Sovereign Award runner-up in two categories last year - champion older horse and champion sprinter. He won four stakes in 10 starts in 2003, but what a difference a year makes.