ARCADIA, Calif. - Azeri, the 2002 Horse of the Year, is expected to be sent back to California this weekend with the hope of returning her to racing under a new trainer, D. Wayne Lukas.
An official announcement is expected in the next few days. Michael Paulson, who manages the Allen Paulson Living Trust, which owns Azeri, did not deny the move when questioned on Tuesday morning but would say only that "a decision is forthcoming."
NEW ORLEANS - After two knee surgeries, a serious foot problem, and a generally disappointing 2003 campaign, Cat Genius is back on his game.
A powerful two-length allowance win here Saturday - his first victory in nine months - will land Cat Genius back in stakes races, with his next start likely to come Jan. 17 in the Sam Houston Sprint Handicap.
"He's really a warrior," said trainer Tom Amoss, who gave his barn a major assist in Cat Genius's return to form.
NEW ORLEANS - If racing fans outside Louisiana and Texas know the name Crowned King, it's probably because he finished third to Ten Most Wanted and Soto in the Grade 1 Super Derby. But Crowned King has another talent - turf racing - and Sunday he will get a chance to display it when he runs in the $75,000 Woodchopper Handicap.
ALBANY, Calif. - In April, two months before any of Renaissance Lady's nine rivals in Saturday's $60,000-added Corte Madera were anywhere near ready to race, she won her debut at Keeneland and was immediately dubbed a "sensational prospect."
Eight months later, Renaissance Lady is still looking for her second victory, but Saturday's one-mile stakes at Golden Gate Fields could well be it.
MIAMI - Can Balto Star effectively stay 1 1/2 miles if he gets outrun to the lead? That could be the key question in the $200,000 , one of four stakes races on Saturday's Grand Slam II program at Calder.
The McKnight will share top billing on the Grand Slam II card, along with its filly counterpart, the $200,000 La Prevoyante Handicap. Both races offer Grade 2 status. The Grade 3, $100,000 Fred W. Hooper Handicap and the $100,000 Stage Door Betty Handicap will complete a special all-stakes pick four wager.
MIAMI - The La Prevoyante Handicap has attracted more than its share of top-class filly and mare long-distance turf specialists to Calder over the years. Enough stars, in fact, to earn the race Grade 2 status. But none of the previous 28 runnings of the 1 1/2-mile La Prevoyante has drawn a field as deep, talented, and wide open as the group that runs on Saturday's Grand Slam II card.
MIAMI - Best of the Rest has been a beaten favorite in three previous renewals of the Grade 3 Fred W. Hooper Handicap. Still, it's not the Hooper jinx but rather the weight his horse must concede to Aeneas that most concerns trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. heading into Saturday's Hooper, which could be the final start of Best of the Rest's amazing career
Best of the Rest will carry high weight of 122 pounds in the Hooper, conceding seven pounds to defending champion The Judge Sez Who and eight to Aeneas.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - While trainer Bruce Levine has dominated the Gallant Fox Handicap, winning four of the last five runnings, Steve Klesaris knows a thing or two himself about winning the marathon stakes race for older horses.
Klesaris won back-to-back runnings of the 13-furlong Gallant Fox with Yourmissinthepoint (1995) and Ave's Flag (1996). Saturday at Aqueduct, Klesaris will seek his third Gallant Fox trophy with Tailfromthecrypt, one of several contenders in a wide-open 65th running of the stakes honoring the 1930 Triple Crown winner.
The additional furlong that There Goes Rocket will get Saturday night in the $125,000 colts and geldings division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park might help him turn the tables on Roundabout Jones.
The one-mile race is restricted to 2-year-olds by nominated stallions, and it shares a program with the $125,000 fillies division, which drew the undefeated Sago.