ARCADIA, Calif. - The pick six carryover of $219,649 for Wednesday's eight-race card at Santa Anita may not be as juicy as the $1.4 million carryover last week, but it offers bettors an enticing prize.
It is not an easy card to conquer, and pick six players are likely to spread their selections in several races.
The pick six covers the third through eighth races and consists of three turf races, two seven-furlong sprints, and the customary maiden claimer for sprinters in the last.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Southern Image will be pointed for the $750,000 Met Mile at Belmont Park on May 31 after his record-setting win in Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Handicap.
"That's the inkling right now, and we'll see how he is in a few weeks," Machowsky said. "We'll pull the shoes off. He runs well fresh. He's proven that."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After a few weeks of above-normal temperatures and dry weather in New York, Mother Nature showed that she wasn't ready to lose her grip on winter. Monday, a slushy mix of rain and snow was falling at Aqueduct, but the poor weather wasn't expected to delay the opening of the main track on Wednesday.
Aqueduct's 38-day spring meet will get under way with a nine-race card, featuring a second-level allowance race for older New York-bred males going a mile. There is a pick-six carryover of $38,956.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Florida Derby week begins with a Jim Dandy of a feature Wednesday at Gulfstream Park.
, last year's Jim Dandy winner, makes his seasonal debut in a $46,000 classified allowance race at six furlongs. He will face seven rivals, including David's Expectation, the only horse offered for the optional claiming tag of $125,000.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Nevada Miss has post, pedigree, and preparation in her favor Wednesday in the featured eighth race at Oaklawn Park. But will she have pace?
"The worry is somebody shaking loose at a flat mile and controlling everything," said Lynn Whiting, who trains the late-running Nevada Miss.
Mae Hap is a serious candidate to do just that in the entry-level allowance for fillies and mares. But, a couple of starters in the one-mile race will be stretching out around two turns, and they could help make for some honest fractions for Nevada Miss.
ALBANY, Calif. - The two premier races of the Golden Gate Fields season are coming up, with the $200,000 Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby on Saturday and $125,000 Golden Gate Breeders' Cup Handicap on Sunday.
Although it was pushed back a week and will be run the same weekend as the San Felipe, a Grade 3, $250,000 race at Santa Anita, the El Camino will have a strong field and an interesting mix of local stars and shippers.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Edgar Prado received word Monday morning that he had officially picked up the mount aboard Tapit in Saturday's $1 million Florida Derby. He celebrated by winning three races that afternoon to move within six of his 5,000th career victory.
Prado was originally scheduled to ride Master David for trainer Bobby Frankel in the Florida Derby. He became available when Master David came down with a temperature and was declared from the race last Friday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - My Trusty Cat, an impressive allowance winner last month at Oaklawn, worked a bullet six furlongs in 1:13.20 on Sunday for a possible start in Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Oaklawn Breeders' Cup.
A 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares, the Oaklawn BC is expected to be headed by the Bob Baffert-trained Cat Fighter and is one of two major stakes here this weekend. The other is the Grade 3, $100,000 Razorback Handicap on Sunday.
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - In a performance the likes of which Sunland Park regulars could not remember seeing before, Bang shaved .48 of a second off the 6 1/2-furlong track record, running the distance in 1:14.29, with jockey Tony Noguez standing up in the saddle as Bang won the $5,825 Bill Thomas Memorial Handicap.
For Bang, a 4-year-old trained by Eric Kruljac, it was his fourth consecutive victory of the meet, a streak that includes setting the track record for 1,000 yards in last month's Budweiser Handicap.