Vals Fortune, trained by Heath Taylor, will be a strong favorite earn a $500,000 bonus by winning the Grade 1, $232,242 LQHBA Futurity on Sunday at Louisiana Downs.
Vals Fortune has taken the first two races needed to earn the bonus, the Grade 2, $103,771 Mardi Gras Futurity and the Grade 1, $226,101 LQHBA Sale Futurity. He also has wins in the $214,700 Lee Berwick Memorial Futurity and the $91,550 Laddie Futurity.
The Woodlands meet offers the perfect melting pot of stables for five-time defending jockey Ken Shino, who through the years has built relationships with many of the stables based in Iowa and Nebraska that frequent the Kansas City, Kan., track.
Shino, originally from Colorado, has been dominant at the Woodlands. Last season, he won an incredible 61 races during the 26-day meet, and this year he leads the standings with 22 wins. He is also the meet's leading jockey by earnings, with mount winnings of $159,401.
Owner Tom Durant has three talented 3-year-olds based at Retama Park, and the least-known of the three, Book Note, will make his first start at the San Antonio-area track on Friday night in the seventh race.
Book Note looks like the one to beat in the conditioned allowance based on his second-place finish to Watchem Smokey two races ago in the $50,000 Airline Stakes at Louisiana Downs.
ANDERSON, Ind. - More than a few tall tales have been hitting the sports-shorts items in the nation's newspapers this week.
For the record, 7-foot-7 former NBA center Manute Bol will not be risking his limbs in breaking a Thoroughbred from the starting gate on Saturday. Bol will go through the licensing process with the Indiana Horse Racing Commission and be issued an identification card, not a jockey's license.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Walk in the Snow, a top Louisiana-bred who was noticeably absent during last Saturday's Breeders' Festival Louisiana Downs, will not return to competition until next year, said his trainer, Herman Taylor.
Walk in the Snow was preparing for a start in the $75,000 Shiskabob when he was found to have a bone chip in his right knee. He recently had minor surgery, and is recuperating at Taylor's farm in Louisiana.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Strut the Stage, the main local hopeful for the $1.5 million Canadian International, and Baie, who relocated at Woodbine last month to prepare for the $750,000 E.P. Taylor, both breezed five furlongs on the turf course Tuesday.
The 1 1/2-mile Canadian International and the 1 1/4-mile E.P. Taylor, both Grade 1 turf races, will be run here Sunday. The International is for 3-year-olds and up, the Taylor for fillies and mares.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Anziyan Royalty, beaten by 20 lengths the only time he raced on grass, gets a second chance at the surface Thursday at Santa Anita. The lightly raced 3-year-old meets a modest field of California-breds in the one-other-than allowance that goes as the seventh race on the card.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Tenpins never really had much of a chance to make the Breeders' Cup Classic at Arlington Park last fall. The Michigan-bred star suffered a minor lung infection several weeks before the race and "we didn't want to make a wrong decision," said his trainer, Don Winfree.
But this fall, with Tenpins in good form and excellent health, the opportunity seemed ripe to try the $4 million Classic at Santa Anita, especially with the defections of such stars as Mineshaft, Candy Ride, and Empire Maker.
Jockey Hoogie Drexler had a big holiday weekend at Turf Paradise, winning with six straight mounts that included five consecutive races.
Drexler began his roll Sunday, winning with his only two mounts, Lady Mountbatten ($4.40) in the fifth race and Papila ($11.40) in the ninth and final race of the day. He then won Monday's first four races, with Iseeyoubaby ($4.80), Irvington ($6.60), Sheza Gladiator ($4.40) and Sir Rubi ($8.20).