More than 100 horses from the Estate of John Franks will be auctioned during the Evangeline Downs 2-year-olds in training and paddock sale at the track Sunday. The total catalog is 158 horses, and the sale will begin at 10 a.m. An under-tack show will be begin at noon Saturday.
Franks, a racing giant who lived in Louisiana, died Dec. 31. Among the horses making up the Franks consignment is Kiss a Native, a Grade 2 winner of more than $1 million.
Willie Nelson and the Beach Boys will perform separate concerts during the opening weekend of the spring meet at Lone Star Park. Nelson, who has played Lone Star the past two years, will perform after the races on April 16. The Beach Boys will perform after the races on April 17.
Lone Star will open its stable area March 29 and plans to keep it open for seven consecutive months. Following the spring meet that runs April 15 to July 11, Lone Star will remain open for training through the conclusion of its fall season, which runs Oct. 1-31.
Trainer Tim Garner and his wife, jockey Cathleen Garner, have won with 10 of their last 24 starters together at Sam Houston. Their most consistent horse has been Spider Dann, who won his fifth consecutive race on March 4. He races for Kenneth Collins.
Tim Garner won several amateur bodybuilding titles before turning to training full-time in 1995. Other top horses the Garners have teamed with this meet include Prime Time Man, who set a track record for 4 1/2'' furlongs in 51.70 seconds Feb. 12.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.- A field of ten 3-year-olds topped by Read The Footnotes, Value Plus and Tapit was entered Wednesday for Saturday's $1 million Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream Park.
Read The Footnotes, winner of the Grade 2 Fountain Of Youth in his last start, drew post position 3 and will be ridden by Jerry Bailey. He was made the 7-5 morning line favorite by track oddsmaker Chuck Streva.
Value Plus is the second choice at 3-1 and will start from post 8 under John Velazquez while Tapit got post position 4 and was pegged at 5-1 under Edgar Prado.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - While the presence of Madcap Escapade will keep the field for Saturday's $150,000 Forward Gal Stakes to five or six runners, there will be at least two formidable foes to challenge her in the Grade 2 race.
La Reina and Wacky Patty, both of whom won graded stakes in 2003, will take on Madcap Escapade in the seven-furlong Forward Gal, one of four undercard stakes on Florida Derby Day at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The potent combination of trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez assures Chase Gap will be the favorite in Thursday's $36,000 feature at Gulfstream Park. But the return of jockey Edgar Prado and a favorable post position draw may make the one to beat in the mile and 70-yard second-level allowance race for fillies and mares.
Kentucky Derby hopefuls Limehouse and Swingforthe-fences will head a field of eight 3-year-olds expected to start in Sunday's $250,000 Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.
Limehouse enters the 1 1/16-mile, Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby off a convincing 2 1/4-length victory in the seven-furlong Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 14. The outing was the first for Limehouse since his third-place finish to Eurosilver in the Lane's End Breeders' Futurity on Oct. 4.
The Pennsylvania Derby has regained Grade 2 status, and there is once again a graded sprint stakes on the schedule at Philadelphia Park.
The list of 11 major stakes to be run in 2004 is highlighted by the $750,000 Pennsylvania Derby on Labor Day. The 1 1/8-mile race was a Grade 2 event from 1983 to 1994, when it was won twice by Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens, with Morning Bob and Cefis, and by such horses as Dixieland Band, Broad Brush, and Summer Squall. It was a Grade 3 race in 1981 and 1982, and from 1995 to 2003.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jolie Rafaela, an allowance-caliber mare from Brazil, has failed to meet horseplayer's expectations. Though her seven-race losing streak includes four losses as the favorite, many bettors expect her drought to end Thursday at Santa Anita where she heads a two other-than allowance at a mile on grass.
