ARCADIA, Calif. - The memory of Hot Market's unlucky performance in the 2002 California Cup Classic has stayed with trainer Craig Lewis for a year.
Hot Market was the 5-2 second choice in the $250,000 race for statebreds, but lost all chance when he reared as the gates opened. Instead of taking his customary position near the front, Hot Market rallied from the back to finish a well-beaten fifth.
"That was devastating," Lewis said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Julie Krone will miss the first three days of the Hollywood Park meeting next week after receiving a three-day suspension for causing interference in last Sunday's sixth race at Santa Anita.
Krone was cited for her ride aboard King Augustus in a maiden race at 1 1/16 miles for 2-year-olds. King Augustus led in midstretch when he drifted to the outside and bumped Courageous Act. King Augustus finished a half-length in front of Courageous Act but was disqualified and placed second after a stewards' inquiry.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The decision of the Oak Tree Racing Association last week to cancel Sunday's Grade 2, $200,000 Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita is being criticized by nationally prominent trainers who intended to run horses in the race. They said the cancellation was a bad precedent specifically and spoke generally to a wider crisis in California racing.
"It's terrible to cancel a race you advertise in the condition book," said trainer Christophe Clement on Wednesday from New York. Clement said he had planned on sending Grade 1 winner Dress to Thrill to the Las Palmas.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Mont Saint Michel went from turning in inconsistent performances in allowance races earlier this year to placing in the Escondido Handicap at Del Mar during the summer. The reason for the turnaround was easy for trainer Bobby Frankel to spot.
"I think it's the way he's been ridden," Frankel said. "David Flores gets along with him really well."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - At some recent fall meets at Churchill Downs, trainer Tom Amoss would hold back a few bullets for Fair Grounds, the New Orleans track that traditionally starts its four-month meet on Thanksgiving Day.
But not this year. Amoss, with 45 horses split between Churchill and Fair Grounds, said the financial troubles in which Fair Grounds has become immersed has led him to focus primarily on the remainder of the Churchill meet.
"The way things are shaping up in New Orleans, I owe it to my owners to run as much as I can here," said Amoss.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Wild Catseye and Barelyinourbodgit, the first two supplements in the history of the New Jersey Futurity, bear watching Friday night at The Meadowlands Racetrack when the split divisions of the race are run for the 46th time.
The New Jersey Futurity, the premier event for 2-year-old New Jersey-breds, attracted seven runners for the $64,000 filly division and eight for the $65,000 colt and gelding division.
The fillies and colts have sometimes run in a single division when the number of entrants did not warrant a split.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine hopes to push back the start of its 2004 Thoroughbred meeting to April 24, three weeks later than originally scheduled, and extend the meeting by two weeks to Dec. 12.
The 2003 meeting began March 29 and will wind up Nov. 30.
Under the proposed application, which would have to be approved by the Ontario Racing Commission, the total number of race dates would remain unchanged at 167.
ALBANY, Calif. - Sirpa and Souvenir's Lad will make comebacks in Saturday's $60,000-added Albany Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.
Sirpa has not run since winning the Pacifica Handicap on Oct. 26, 2002, at Bay Meadows. Souvenir's Lad has not run since the California Derby on April 12.
The presence of My Captain makes it a tough spot for a comeback, but trainer Jerry Hollendorfer calls the six-furlong race "a good starting point" for Sirpa.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Midnight Cruiser and Donovan Scores, who finished a head apart in first and second when they met at 5 1/2 furlongs here on Oct. 25, will be rematched at six furlongs in Friday night's featured race for older $3,200 claimers at Portland Meadows.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Horsemen with an Illinois-bred who can run at all will seriously consider Saturday's Illinois Festival of Racing, which comprises six $100,000 stakes races restricted to statebreds. Taking a flier with a longshot makes sense when the horse can compete for such a high purse.
But the trainers who might enter an outsider in the Robert F. Carey II Handicap tend to begin their stories the same way: "I know Wiggins is running, but . . . "
