NEW ORLEANS - Twelve 3-year-old fillies were entered in Saturday's $75,000 Pago Hop Stakes, but on paper the race is Baie, then the 11 others.
Baie, a French filly owned by the Six C Racing Stable of Andreas Putsch, has started just twice in North America, and faced Grade 1 competition both times. In France, where she made her first eight starts, Baie finished fourth, beaten just two lengths, in the Group 1 French Oaks last June.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - There are no standouts in Saturday's $100,000 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct, but betting opportunities abound for handicappers looking to score some holiday shopping money.
Eleven fillies and mares entered the Grade 3 Ladies, and whoever the favorite is in this wide-open race, her odds will probably be no lower than 5-2.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Misyodl is the one to beat when she heads a field of seven 3- and 4-year-old fillies in Saturday's Portland Meadows feature, a six-furlong allowance test for runners who have never won three races.
Misyodl won under identical conditions here on Dec. 6, when she came from sixth position to score by just over a length in 1:15.10. It was the second career win from four starts for Misyodl, a 3-year-old daughter of Swiss Yodeler from the barn of Eric Jensen, who also scored in her 5 1/2-furlong debut against maiden special weight company last March.
MIAMI - The first time Campsie Fells and Ocean Drive met, it was against Grade 1 competition in Keeneland's Queen Elizabeth II Cup. The opposition figures to be a little less formidable when they meet again in Saturday's $100,000 Frances A. Genter Stakes at Calder.
The 7 1/2-furlong Genter shares top billing on Saturday's 12-race program with its male counterpart, the $100,000 Pete Axthelm Stakes. As expected, both events will be decided by a full gate-load of 12 3-year-olds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Historically, the Gravesend Handicap at Aqueduct racetrack has been a New York trainer's race. The list of the trainers of the last 10 winners of the six-furlong, late-fall stakes reads like a Who's Who of winter-meet leaders: Juan Serey, Joseph Orseno, Richard Dutrow Jr., James Jerkens, Howard Tesher, and Gasper Moschera.
Keeneland Race Course on Thursday released a stakes schedule with the usual riches and very little change to the status quo for the Lexington, Ky., track's 2004 spring meet.
Nineteen stakes, or at least one per day for the 15-day meet that runs April 2-23, will be worth $3,775,000. As always, the richest and most prestigious of those races is the $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, a crucial Kentucky Derby stepping-stone that will be run April 10. The Grade 1 Blue Grass is one of 14 graded races on the schedule.
The board of directors of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority approved a plan on Wednesday to explore the possibility of leasing Monmouth Park and The Meadowlands, the two remaining New Jersey Thoroughbred racetracks.
According to an announcement by the NJSEA, the board directed the investment-banking firm Lehman Brothers to serve as its adviser and draw up an offering sheet to seek proposals.
The Ohio Racing Commission at its Thursday meeting granted Ohio's three Thoroughbred tracks a total of 449 racing dates for 2004.
Beulah Park will begin its winter-spring meeting on Jan. 10 and run through Kentucky Derby Day on May 1. The fall meeting at Beulah will run from Sept. 18 through Dec. 21 for a total of 140 days of racing.
Thistledown will begin its 187-day season on April 8 and race through the end of the year, with racing to be conducted Thursday through Monday.
It is common for a racetrack to name a stakes in honor of an important horseman or personality who has done much to raise the profile of Thoroughbred racing. An example is the $100,000 Jim Edgar Illinois Futurity, Saturday's feature at Hawthorne, which honors the former Illinois governor, who was a major proponent of racing during his administration.