OLDSMAR, FLA. - The face of racing has changed dramatically since the advent of full-card simulcasting. It used to be most customers were at the track watching races live, but these days the majority of money bet at any given track comes from bettors at outlets around the country.
That's why the quality of a track's video package is critical.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Aqueduct was one of several tracks to cancel on Saturday due to the extreme cold that has gripped the northeast. The decision to cancel Aqueduct's nine-race card was made by 8 a.m. when the temperature was 1 degree and the wind chill factor was well-below zero.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - One is speedy, and the other is a closer.
One is trained by someone on a fast track to the Hall of Fame. The other is trained by someone who has been in the Hall for nearly 30 years.
Beyond those differences, , who will clash as the favorites in the $100,000 The First Lady Handicap at Gulfstream Park, are very similar. Both are classy and consistent sprinters who have captured Grade 1 events; both are mainstays of the Florida-New York circuit; and both could surpass the $1 million earnings mark if they produce this year like they did last year.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The $500,000 Donn Handicap is still four weeks away, but this year's renewal of the Grade 1 race has the potential to be one of the best in recent years.
Trainer Bobby Frankel confirmed Friday that he is "leaning towards the Donn" with , the Breeders' Cup Classic runner-up and one of the finalists for an Eclipse Award in the older male category.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Six furlongs may not be the optimum distance for . Yet the concern is minimal relative to the discomforting pace scenario that every other 3-year-old faces Sunday in the Grade 3 San Miguel Stakes at Santa Anita.
Five of the seven San Miguel entrants are front-runners. The group consists of Hosco, unbeaten after two starts; The Herc, a two-time stakes winner at six furlongs; Roi Charmant, a wire-to-wire maiden winner; Gethsemani, one-two at the first pace call in every start; and the filly Hot Weekend. Panama shipper Latitude completes the field.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A large-scale exodus from Southern California of horses claimed in recent months by owner Michael Gill has prompted Jack Liebau, the president of Santa Anita, to seek dialog with Gill over Gill's plans.
Gill, along with trainer Nick Canani, has claimed 71 horses at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park since Oct. 24. About 30 of those horses have left the circuit. They have not been replaced by a similar number of horses, Liebau said Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - To say that trainer Pat Kelly wasn't thrilled with the 123 pounds that carried when he was second in the Queens County Handicap last month would be an understatement.
"He had no chance going in with the weight; he was a dead duck going in," Kelly said Friday morning at his Belmont Park barn after Evening Attire worked five furlongs in 1:01.43.
Evening Attire, who spotted his five rivals eight to 11 pounds in the Queens County, was beaten 1 1/2 lengths by Thunder Blitz, who carried 114.
NEW ORLEANS - There are some nice horses entered in the Colonel Power Handicap, but it's possible that one stands out. has raced just once since last March, and didn't even win, but this 4-year-old colt could have a strong season in graded stakes-level sprint races.
So go the hopes, at least, of his trainer, Dallas Stewart. "I'm hoping later on in the year he could be a Breeders' Cup Sprint type of horse," Stewart said.
NEW ORLEANS - On the surface, little distinguished Raised Right's victory in Thursday's seventh race at Fair Grounds. Raised Right, a first-time starter who has just turned 4, took betting action, and his solid half-length win got his backers $5.60 to win. But the race meant more to the people close to Raised Right.
Trainer Neil Pessin, who won just once in 2003, had waited two years for the colt to start, and as Pessin has plowed forward with a handful of lower-level horses, Raised Right has kept him hopeful.
Greg James is not your typical businessman. He works long hours like most, but his "power lunches" come at a different location than most corporate types - at the racetrack.
James, who owns and manages seven hotels in the Louisville metropolitan area, goes to the office in the morning, heads to Churchill Downs Trackside for late training hours, and returns to the office for more hotel management work later in the afternoon. And, of course, every so often he heads to Turfway Park at night to race one of the 20 horses he owns and trains.
