For the third time at the current meeting, a large last-minute wager resulted in a horse going off at 1-20 in the first race at Portland Meadows last Saturday.
Seeking Love, the morning-line second choice at 3-1, went off at 1-20 after an unidentified bettor at Gulfstream Park wagered $4,200 into a win pool that contained only about $1,000. The winner, Wind Trail, paid $58.20 despite being listed at 3-1 at post time. Seeking Love ran third in the $2,500 claiming event for fillies and mares.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Heza Cash Request will head a field of nine older Quarter Horses in Friday's Portland Meadows feature, the $5,500-added Professional's Choice Challenge Final at 350 yards.
Heza Cash Request, a 4-year-old son of A Cash Request who races for trainer Stan Webb, will be shooting for his seventh straight win while making his Portland Meadows debut. For his career, Heza Cash Request has won 8 of 10 starts for $61,722 in earnings. He has not started since November of last year, when he won a $75,000 starter claiming race going 350 yards at Los Alamitos.
LAUREL, Md. - Edgar Prado was 32 and on a decade-long run of dominating Maryland racing when he transferred to the New York circuit.
Kent Desormeaux was 21 with an Eclipse Award and a season record for victories when he broke the chains here and moved to California.
Chris McCarron was 23, also with a record (the one Desormeaux broke), and four years of reigning supreme when he opted for California's testing circuit.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Kiaran McLaughlin will not win the 2004 Gulfstream Park training title. But he figures to put the punctuation mark on one of the more impressive overall training performances in track history when he sends out Seattle Fitz as the odds-on favorite in Saturday's $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap.
McLaughlin will enter the Gulfstream Park Handicap with 15 winners and four graded-stakes victories from just 35 starters here this winter - a batting average of .430 at one of the premier race meets in the country.
CHICAGO - The dirt Pure American kicked up while demolishing eight entry-level allowance opponents hardly had settled back down onto Oaklawn Park's racetrack when Grant Forster began planning. Finally, Pure American had translated his ability into a standout performance. Now it was time to shop for a big race.
"With 3-year-olds this time of year, you want to give them a shot," said Forster, who trains Pure American for Al and Sandee Kirkwood, the gelding's owners and breeders.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Bill Mahorney will watch Friday's Golden Gate Fields feature with interest.
Not only is he starting two strong contenders, Marty's Zee and Devil Dancing, in the $80,000 optional claimer at six furlongs, but he is also the trainer who developed the likely favorite, Grant Marty a Wish.
The three look like the prime threats in a competitive race that includes Hippogator and Gone to Party from leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer's barn as well as Icy Choice, making her third start of the year after an eight-month layoff.
Shawnee Slade goes for her fourth straight win and Mangum Jess tries to rebound from a poor outing in separate stakes at Los Alamitos on Friday.
Shawnee Slade starts in the $15,000 Paradise Beach Handicap at 300 yards after winning three straight races, from the $50,000 claiming level to the Sand Dollar Beach Handicap.
Mangum Jess joins seven other 3-year-olds at 550 yards in the $15,000 Harbor Beach Handicap. He won his maiden two starts ago and then was fifth in the $86,000 Maiden Stakes after a poor start.
The Quarter Horse Express Fee and the Thoroughbreds Hecamefromaclaim and Shes Outa Bull, who share highweight of 123 pounds, meet in a deep field of 3-year-olds going 870 yards in the $50,000 Getaway Handicap on Saturday afternoon at Sunland Park.
Express Fee, who is expected to use his early speed from the outside post in the eight-horse field, made a strong 870-yard debut in his most recent start, going to the front and drawing away to win by six lengths.
CALGARY, Alberta - The Canadian Thoroughbred racing season begins Friday evening at Stampede Park, with nine half-mile races on the opening card of a 47-day meet.
Tantoo, an 8-year-old with a fondness for this five-furlong oval, figures to be the heavy favorite against four other fillies and mares in the featured eighth race, for $28,000 claimers.