ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Patrick Biancone has a definitive leader among his 3-year-old male prospects in Lion Heart, the undefeated winner of the Hollywood Futurity last month.
Sunday at Santa Anita, he could find a female counterpart if can continue their recent success in stakes in the $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on dirt.
MIAMI - Thursday's $100,000 Tropical Park Oaks lost its likely favorite when Vous, winner of the Hollywood Wildcat Stakes here Nov. 29, was withdrawn from consideration earlier this week due to a minor illness. The Oaks may also have lost its two best remaining contenders at entry time, when Honey Ryder and My Amandari ended up on the also-eligible list.
The Oaks is run under allowance conditions for 3-year-old fillies and is restricted to 12 starters. Sixteen horses were entered for the event, with high weights preferred when it came to determining eligibility.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - , who dominated New York's handicap division last winter with three stakes wins over the inner track, has been taken out of training with a severe foot bruise that will force him to miss some of the races he won last year.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Ema Bovary will attempt to win her sixth straight race in Wednesday's $75,000 Kalookan Queen Handicap at Santa Anita, a streak that trainer Larry Ross insists should be longer.
Ema Bovary, a 4-year-old Chilean-bred, has not lost since she finished seventh in the Richmond Handicap at Golden Gate Fields in her United States debut last February. In that race, she was left at the start but still managed to finish 5 1/4 lengths behind the winner.
"She really should have won six in a row," he said. "She got left unbelievably."
ARCADIA, Calif. - Azeri, the 2002 Horse of the Year, arrived at trainer D. Wayne Lukas's stable at Santa Anita on Sunday, but remains months away from resuming a career that appeared to have ended in October because of injury.
Owner Michael Paulson said on Sunday that Azeri underwent ultrasound examinations at two equine hospitals in Kentucky in late October and early November before the decision was made to send her to Lukas.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Icantgoforthat, helped by an uncontested lead and four scratches, held off a late threat from Polygreen to score her first graded stakes win in Monday's $109,300 Monrovia Handicap at Santa Anita.
Icantgoforthat ($10.80) finished about 6 1/2 furlongs on turf in 1:13.07, winning by a nose over Polygreen, who was part of a favored entry at 1-2 with Spring Star, the third-place finisher.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - While his brother Richard has thus far dominated the proceedings over Aqueduct's inner track, trainer Tony Dutrow will try to steal some of that thunder this week with representatives in a trio of $75,000 stakes races.
Tony Dutrow, who is based in Maryland, will send out Elegant Designer, the likely favorite, in Thursday's Interborough Handicap for fillies and mares at six furlongs. This weekend, Dutrow will ship in Mr. Spock for Saturday's Count Fleet for 3-year-old colts and Bikini Wiggle for Sunday's Ruthless for 3-year-old fillies.
David Cora, three-time leading rider at Penn National Race Course, will be sidelined for at least six weeks as the result of injuries sustained when his mount fell in Saturday night's sixth race.
Cora broke his left collarbone and shoulder blade when the 6-year-old gelding Devil Will Do Ya, trailing the field, fell for the second time in his last three starts at the track. Devil Will Do Ya had to be euthanized because of the severity of his injuries.
Richetta didn't make her career debut until August and was still eligible for a first-level allowance race in October. During a span of 35 days, Richetta blossomed quickly and reeled off three consecutive stakes victories at Laurel Park.
Richetta will be heavily favored to extend her string of stakes triumphs to four in Wednesday's Maryland Juvenile Fillies Championship, one of two $100,000 stakes for statebred 2-year-olds on Laurel Park's last program of 2003.
ALBANY, Calif. - Over the past two weekends, northern California trainers John F. Martin and William E. Morey each reached 100 victories in a year for the first time.
Martin reached 100 when Ex Federali and Anstar won consecutive races on Dec. 21. He got win No. 101 last Saturday with Dancing Sands.
"I tried as hard as I could to get there," Martin said. "The harder you work, the luckier you get. It's just a matter of fighting every day, trying to win races."
Morey reached 100 on Sunday when Beckham won a $12,500 claimer at one mile.
