INGLEWOOD, Calif. - If there is a faster 2-year-old filly than Swiss Please in the $75,000 Nursery Stakes on Sunday at Hollywood Park, she is well hidden. There is an overflow number of entrants in the five-furlong Nursery, the first juvenile stakes of the year in Southern California, and one in which Swiss Please is the rightful favorite.
scored a sharp win in her April 28 debut at 4 1/2 furlongs for Mike Harrington, who is the trainer, co-breeder, and co-owner of the filly.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Entered in the $75,000 The Very One Stakes at Pimlico on Friday, Nicole's Dream was scratched by trainer Larry Rivelli. She is in a much weaker field in Sunday's seventh race at Churchill Downs, and it is her opponents that might be hoping for a way out.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Purge, who was beaten by Smarty Jones the last two times he ran, will run next in the $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on May 22.
Trained by Todd Pletcher, Purge hasn't raced since finishing fifth in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 10. Purge set the pace for six furlongs in the 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby before tiring and finishing 7 1/4 lengths behind the winner, Smarty Jones, who won the Kentucky Derby in his next start.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Up until a few days ago, owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey were making plans for Royal Ascot - not merely to attend, but also to participate.
The Ramseys had intended to run Kitten's Joy, recent winner of the Crown Royal American Turf, in the Group 1 St. James's Palace Stakes during Royal Ascot, Britain's most prestigious meeting. In the end, after conferring with trainer Dale Romans, they opted to keep him based in America, believing it would give him a better chance of winning a Breeders' Cup race this fall.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - What's a former Quarter Horse trainer doing dominating turf racing in northern California?
Trainer Brian Koriner won both of Wednesday's turf races at Bay Meadows, with Blue Imp and Aza. His win rate on the turf going back to Jan. 1, 2003, is 22 percent with a flat-bet profit of more than $3.
"I pay attention to all the great trainers," Koriner said. "How often do you see a Robert Frankel horse on the lead in a turf race? The only time is when they're rank. Usually they sit there and make a big move into the stretch."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - One for Rose, Canada's reigning champion older filly or mare, was among the nominees for Sunday's Hendrie Handicap. But although One for Rose could be making her seasonal debut on Sunday, it won't be in the 6 1/2-furlong Hendrie.
Sid Attard, who trains One for Rose for Tucci Stable, has entered the Ontario-bred 5-year-old as a main-track-only contestant for the one-mile turf prep for the Nassau Stakes. If the $86,400 allowance race comes off the turf, then One for Rose will be competing over a mile and 70 yards and will be the one to beat.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Winter-raced Handpainted should have a significant fitness edge on her five opponents in Sunday's $161,250 Hendrie Handicap, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares at Woodbine.
Handpainted, a double stakes winner in 2002 for owners John and Glenn Sikura, ran just twice last year at 3. Her best effort of that abbreviated campaign was a runner-up placing in the Grade 1 Selene Stakes.
FORT ERIE, Ontario- - Opening day at Fort Erie, May 1, was hardly a triumph for Kris Robinson, the Fort's leading apprentice of 2002, but he was happy to be back in the saddle again.
Robinson was riding for the first time since he was injured during the running of the Peninsula Stakes here last Aug. 4. His mount, Ocala Frost, trailing the field, went down while turning into the stretch on the turf course.
Somersaulting in the air, Robinson landed flat on his back. The result was a fracture of the third lumbar, at the bottom of the spine.
AUBURN, Wash. - When the local 3-year-old stakes fillies first got together in the six-furlong U. S. Bank Stakes on April 18, it was all Sandia's Flicka and Melba Jewel, who finished in a virtual dead heat with a daylight margin on third-place finisher Sariano.
Sandia's Flicka, who emerged the winner, came into that race off a solid six-race campaign at Sunland Park in New Mexico. She was in midseason form. Melba Jewel, however, was making her 2004 debut. She had license to be a little short.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Extremely frustrating would be a way to sum up the season that trainer Carl Lausten had at Hastings in 2003. Lausten won only three races from 59 starts, but it wasn't that his horses were running poorly, they just weren't winning. More than half of his starters finished in the money and 18 finished second.
"A friend said that I was one horse away from having a great year," said Lausten. "But that's horse racing. Everyone has bad meets, and I guess it was my turn last year."