LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hour after countless hour of hard work could result in one of the greatest days of Ron Isbell Jr.'s life Sunday.
Isbell is the owner, trainer, exercise rider, and groom for Gretchen's Star, an 8-year-old gelding who will start as a full-of-hope longshot in the River City Handicap at Churchill Downs. Once written off as completely finished, Gretchen's Star has earned over $300,000, almost all of it since Isbell assumed the gelding's care some four years ago.
To most, the math does not make sense. Excessivepleasure, a Southern California-based colt who won the $400,000 Indiana Derby in his last start, has shipped halfway across the country to run for $150,000 in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday.
But racing is not always about finance. It's about being disciplined enough to choose the proper race for a horse to ensure his longevity, and that appears to be the route owners Lee and Ty Leatherman and trainer Doug O'Neill are taking with Excessivepleasure.
CHICAGO - A mixed bag of seven horses was entered for Sunday's featured fourth race at Hawthorne, the Prompt Angel Stakes at five furlongs on turf. If turf sprints are anomalies in this country, this race is an anomaly with variety. There are claimers moving to stakes, route horses switching to sprints, and dirt horses trying turf - somewhere, there must even be a winner.
In his three derby wins, Excessivepleasure has never received the kind of respect at the windows he will command Sunday when he starts as a heavy favorite in the Grade 3, $150,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park.
Excessivepleasure has the look of a standout in the 1 1/8-mile derby, the richest race of the Remington meet. He is by far the most accomplished runner in the Oklahoma Derby field with 5 wins from 10 career starts, including the WinStar Derby at Sunland Park, the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows, and the Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park, and has earnings of $889,582.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Winter Garden, the most accomplished 3-year-old filly sprinter in Canada, will seek her third consecutive win against older opponents Sunday at Woodbine in the $164,400 Bessarabian Handicap.
Winter Garden has had a lucrative campaign, winning 5 of 8 starts while banking $372,186. She won her first stakes April 5 in the six-furlong Star Shoot, and showed she could handle 1 1/16 miles when she finished third after a dead-rail trip in the Grade 1 Selene Stakes.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Code Name Fred will put his three-race win streak on the line in the Hastings feature, a 1 1/16-mile allowance race for 3-year-olds and up that haven't won a stakes of $20,000 or more in 2003.
While Code Name Fred, who races for Bar None Ranches, hasn't won a stakes race this year, he has won plenty in his career and comes into Sunday's race with more than $400,000 in earnings. He's also very sharp, having won all three of his starts in October at Northlands Park.
Ashagio was the big winner at Fort Erie's annual awards banquet Thursday, taking home honors as horse of the year, top distance male, and best claim of the 2003 meeting.
A 5-year-old gelding owned by his trainer, Daryl Ezra, and Russell Wintle, Ashagio was claimed from a win in his 2003 debut at Fort Erie on April 26.
Ashagio went on win 6 of his 13 subsequent starts at the meeting, adding four second-place finishes. He earned $128,583 on the year.
GROVE CITY, Ohio - Catch My Cat heads a field of nine Ohio-accredited 2-year-olds in Sunday's $35,000 Ohio Freshman Stakes at Beulah Park.
Catch My Cat is the only two-time winner and the only stakes winner entered in the six-furlong Freshman, by virtue of his gate-to-wire victory in the Cleveland Kindergarten at Thistledown on July 4.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - If You're Lucky, winner of the third race here last Sunday for owner-trainer Nick DeToro, has been disqualified from all purse money after the stewards were notified that he had been ineligible to race for the claiming price at which he was entered.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - If Blowin in the Wind runs his "A" race in Sunday's allowance feature, it should be good enough to win. The problem is that Blowin in the Wind has made a habit of saving his best performances for six-figure stakes races.