INGLEWOOD, Calif. - F J's Pace has won his last two starts, has won a remarkable 18 of 61 starts, and is one of the toughest turf sprinters on the Southern California circuit.
But his recent record at Hollywood Park could make him vulnerable in a competitive $54,000 optional claimer over 5 1/2 furlongs on turf on Friday night.
Last November, finished fifth of seven as the favorite in an optional claimer for turf sprinters over this course. He set the pace but faded in the final furlong.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Although Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile at Bay Meadows will include a lone front-runner in Captain Squire, Don Chatlos, the trainer of Singletary, wouldn't change positions with anyone. A field of four is expected for the one-mile turf race.
Chatlos has big plans for Singletary, who has recorded triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in both starts this year, winning the Thunder Road at Santa Anita and running second, beaten a half-length by Sweet Return, in the Grade 2 Kilroe Handicap there.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland has been running stakes races since 1937, but only once in track history has a horse been able to win the same stakes in three consecutive years. That horse was Royal Harmony, a local legend who captured the Fayette Handicap each year from 1969 to 1971 for Pat Devereux Sr.
Friday, that longstanding record stands a chance of being equaled. Kim Loves Bucky is back to try for a third straight victory in the $150,000 Elkhorn Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile turf marathon that helps close the books on the 15-day spring meet.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Kitty Knight drew away to a two-length win over the favorite, Elegant Mercedes, in Wednesday's $59,350 Capote Belle Stakes at Aqueduct.
Ridden by Norberto Arroyo Jr., Kitty Knight stalked pacesetter Literary Light and took the lead at the top of the stretch in the six-furlong Capote Belle.
Kitty Knight's stablemate Actcellent finished third, a length behind Elegant Mercedes. Ladyecho and Literary Light completed the order of finish.
Kitty Knight ($5.60) covered the distance in 1:10.43 over a fast track.
Trainer Cole Norman has been fined $2,500 by the Arkansas Racing Commission for violating workout rules at Oaklawn Park.
The ruling, issued April 12, states that Norman was fined for "failing to furnish the official clocker with the names of horses worked at Oaklawn Park in a timely manner; [and] providing the official clocker incorrect names of horses worked at Oaklawn Park."
Norman won his fourth consecutive title at Oaklawn this year. The meet closed April 10.
The owners of Pimlico Race Course said the track's profit fell nearly 58 percent in 2003, according to a financial report filed this week with the Maryland Racing Commission.
Pimlico showed a profit of $671,000 on racing revenue of $27.6 million last year, compared with a profit of $1.6 million on racing revenue of $31.5 million in 2002. Nearly a third of Pimlico's racing revenue, 9.1 million, came on Preakness Day.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Tricky Taboo, whose connections had hoped to run him in the 130th Kentucky Derby, has been eliminated from contention with a minor injury to his left hind cannon bone, trainer Ed Frederick said Wednesday. Frederick said the colt will be out of training for 60 days.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Kela is the latest California-based horse to shoot for a major stakes double at Lone Star Park. He will run Saturday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Texas Mile, and with a good performance could return to the track for the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap on May 31.
The races are the two richest stakes of the meet for older horses. Dixie Dot Com came in from California and swept them in 2001. And last year, Bluesthestandard was going for the same sweep after winning the Texas Mile, but finished second in the Lone Star Park Handicap.
CALGARY, Alberta - King Jeremy and Fussy's Kid, two of the better sprinters on this circuit, head a full field of 10 older runners in a $21,300 optional claimer here Friday that provides superfecta players with one of the most intriguing races of the meet.
The six-furlong sprint will run as the fifth race on a 10-race program, which concludes with the first running of the Stampede Park Classic, a $15,000 Quarter Horse stakes at 220 yards.
Friday marks the last appearance at the meeting of the superior Quarter Horse In Search of Fame, who will head a field of five allowance runners in the 350-yard fourth race.
Portland Meadows will present a special nine-race program on Friday, a day that was originally scheduled to be dark.
Friday's program is the third of four cards scheduled to make up for racing days lost to a severe storm in January. The track will race as scheduled on Saturday, then end its 80-day meeting with a final make-up program on Monday.