SAN MATEO, Calif. - There is only one thing missing on Hooked on Niners' resume - a stakes victory.
Trainer Bill Morey Jr. is hopeful that will be rectified Saturday when the 5-year-old mare runs in the Grade 3, $125,000 Yerba Buena Breeders' Cup Handicap.
In 14 career starts, Hooked on Niners has never finished worse than fourth. She has four wins and $144,300 in earnings, plus a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Brown Bess Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Jan. 31.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Veteran trainer Bill Carrelli and his daughter Christina Minnick attended the Mint Jubilee ball in downtown Louisville on the night before the 130th Kentucky Derby with the hopes of getting to meet Michael Imperioli, one of the stars of the HBO hit "The Sopranos."
"Christina is crazy about him," said Carrelli, who trains a two-horse stable at Louisville Trackside. "But Michael was a no-show."
AUBURN, Wash. - Bub, the champion 2-year-old here in 2002, will return after missing most of last year in Friday's six-furlong allowance feature at Emerald Downs.
Bub, who will face seven rivals, won 4 of 6 starts here as a 2-year-old, including three stakes. He finished fourth in his first start as a 3-year-old in last season's Auburn Stakes in May, but did not return until Sept. 21, when he ran 10th and last in the one-mile Trooper Seven Stakes.
CALGARY, Alberta - Divide and conquer was the strategy at entry time Tuesday morning, and racing secretary Barry McGrath came up with one of the best cards of the Stampede Park meet by splitting an optional claiming race and a $22,000 claimer after both races overfilled.
Code Name Fred, a multiple stakes winner of more than $400,000, heads the fourth race, an allowance with a $35,000 claiming option, and stands out on his class alone. An 8-year-old, Code Name Fred has been plagued by physical problems in the past, missing all of 2002 and most of last summer
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Aloha Bold, who has won half of his turf starts, is scheduled to return to that surface for the first time since January 2003 in the $100,000 Beck Auto Group Turf Sprint at Lone Star Park on May 31, said his trainer, Wes Hawley.
The Beck became the game plan for Aloha Bold after he won an off-the-turf allowance at Lone Star last Friday. He covered five furlongs over a sloppy track in 56.26 seconds, earning a 105 Beyer Speed Figure.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A flurry of long-priced winners helped the Churchill Downs pick 6 pool carry over to Thursday, when fans will bet into a jackpot starting at $855,542.
The upsets began right away when Blackjack Canyon ($43.60) barely held on to win the fifth race, the first leg of the $2-minimum bet. Subsequent winners were Smokin' John ($7.60), Mail Call ($29.40), Steamboat Springs ($42.60), Miss Fortunate ($7.40), and Marnie's Heirloom ($134.20). Favorites went 0 for 6.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - Terry Houghton returns to ride at Great Lakes Downs on Saturday for the first time since he was involved in a horrific spill there in August 2002.
He has mounts in five of the eight races on Saturday's program.
Houghton sustained a severe concussion when his mount went down at the half-mile pole, and was thrown a considerable distance before being hit by a trailing horse. He underwent months of therapy in Detroit and was out of action for 16 months until he resumed his career last December at Tampa Bay Downs.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Although Curtis Kimes is likely to fall short of catching Perry Compton, he has made it a race for the riding title at Fonner Park. Kimes comes into the final two days of racing trailing Compton, 76-67, the closest race for leading rider in several years.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - The $40,000 Michael Rowland Memorial Handicap, formerly the Quick Step Handicap, will be run Saturday. The race honors Thistledown's all-time leading jockey Michael Rowland, who died in February from injuries sustained in a spill at Turfway Park. Rowland rode here for 20 years.