OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The old man ain't done yet.
Peeping Tom, the 7-year-old gelding who appeared to be tailing off, rebounded in dramatic fashion Saturday, running down Don Six in the final strides to win the $83,025 by a head before 4,669 at Aqueduct. It was another 2 1/4 lengths back to Super Fuse in third.
Sing Me Back Home, 2-1 favorite Way to the Top, Crafty Song, Spooky Mulder, and Crossing Point completed the order of finish. Sunray Spirit was eased.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It is tempting to exaggerate the importance of the first Grade 1 of the year - the Santa Monica Handicap on Sunday at Santa Anita. Yet there is a sense of urgency for Santa Monica favorite Sightseek, who is 0 for 4 at Santa Anita and 8 for 9 everywhere else.
"Yeah, it's a concern," trainer Bobby Frankel said regarding her record at Santa Anita. "If she doesn't win this race, I'll probably never run her at Santa Anita again."
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita will cut purses in the near future because business did not meet expectations during the first month of the winter-spring meeting, according to two top racing officials.
Track officials and executives with the Thoroughbred Owners of California said they plan to meet in coming days to discuss a purse cut. The amount of the purse cut has not been determined, but it is expected to affect overnight purses and stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Bob Durso had been pointing undefeated 3-year-old Frisky Spider toward the Grade 2 Hutcheson Stakes on Feb. 14. The colt's sire, Frisk Me Now, won that race at odds of 105-1 in 1997.
But now Durso is having a change of heart: If Frisky Spider shows Durso enough in Sunday's fifth race, the trainer might consider passing the Hutcheson for the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth the same afternoon. Sunday's second-level allowance dash drew a field of seven and marks the 2004 debut of the promising Stolen Time.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Horseplayers may do a double take when they notice that Macaw lost every one of his nine starts in 2003 - yet still earned $496,500.
"It is frustrating when a horse goes the whole year without winning," said Robin Smullen, the Barclay Tagg assistant who will lead over Macaw for the $100,000 Mac Diarmida Handicap on Sunday at Gulfstream Park. "But it's not frustrating when they earn that much. You don't see what he did very often."
Trainer Hal Wiggins practically radiates diplomacy. Ask Wiggins to choose one of the two fillies he entered in Sunday's $100,000 Tiffany Lass Stakes. Not a chance.
That will be up to the bettors, and the Tiffany Lass could turn on whatever difference exists between .
At one mile on dirt, the Tiffany Lass starts local 3-year-old fillies on the path to the $300,000 Fair Grounds Oaks. And there are plenty of them. Thirteen were entered in the Tiffany Lass, 11 locally based horses and one shipper each from Sam Houston and Oaklawn Park.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Pablo Fragoso maintains the same even-keel temperament regarding his chances of winning an Eclipse Award as he does sitting on a 1,100-pound Thoroughbred.
"If we win, we win," said Fragoso, who is represented by agent Mike Kelly. "If not, we keep going."
Fragoso, 21, kept his recent hot streak going on Friday, winning four consecutive races on Aqueduct's nine-race card. His four victories on one card were a career best, and he is now beginning to open up a sizeable lead in the jockey standings here
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - When Island Sand won her maiden by 12 3/4 lengths last October at Laurel Park, trainer Tony Dutrow fast-forwarded to the winter and Aqueduct's series of stakes for 3-year-old fillies run over the inner track.
"I've been through the winter time with fillies up there before," Dutrow said. "It doesn't take a real star for these 3-year-old fillies to shine up there."
Dutrow doesn't profess to have a star in Island Sand, but she probably doesn't have to be one to beat her nine rivals in Sunday's $75,000 Busanda Stakes, run at a mile and 70 yards.
MIAMI - Bob Umphrey, the racing secretary of Calder Race Course, has released his 2004 Calder and Tropical-at-Calder stakes schedules, and the emphasis has once again been placed on the track's popular multiple-stakes days.
The 126-day Calder meet runs from April 26 through Oct. 23. The 55-day Tropical meet opens Oct. 24 and continues until Jan. 2, 2005.
After spending past years in Southern California, trainer Chris Paasch would have a right to be frustrated by cold, winter racing in Kentucky. But he says he finds conditions in Kentucky downright balmy.
"I'm originally from upstate New York," he said. "This is like a Hawaiian weekend."
Irrespective of the weather, Paasch is in a positive mood. He won a race Wednesday night at Turfway Park with Mighty David, and the construction at Victory Haven Training Center, which he manages, is proceeding rapidly.
