ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Stakes horses may have been too much for Leaseholder's Dream the last time she ran. But it's Leaseholder's Dream who may be too much for six allowance rivals in Arlington's nominally featured eighth race Sunday.
Both races eight, at six furlongs on dirt, and nine, at
1 1/16 miles on turf, are for first-level allowance fillies, but the eighth has a stronger, though smaller, field.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - More than $37,000 was raised for the Disabled Jockeys' Endowment during a live auction Friday afternoon at Lone Star Park. The items were sold during a luncheon honoring Laffit Pincay Jr., the all-time win leader among jockeys who retired because of an injury sustained in March.
The boots Pincay wore on the final day of his career topped the auction, bringing $5,000 from owner Lee Hughes.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Michael Gill, the leading owner at the Monmouth meet, is embroiled in a dispute over a horse who was declared ineligible for a starter handicap on Saturday's card.
The conditions for Saturday's seventh race read: "A handicap for 3-year-olds and upward which have started for a claiming price of $12,500 or less since September 1, 2002 and have not won a stake since then."
The issue hinges on the phrase "since then."
ALTOONA, Iowa - Trainer Paul Pearson's entry of Take Me Up and Le Numerous will be favored when they face six other Iowa-bred colts and geldings in Sunday's $70,000 Cyclones Handicap at Prairie Meadows.
Take Me Up is the 121-pound highweight in the Cyclones. Take Me Up, a 5-year-old gelded son of Take Me Out, rallied to score a two-length upset win over Cowboy Stuff in the six-furlong John Wayne Stakes here in his 2003 debut May 17.
Sunday's feature at River Downs, the $50,000 Sydney Gendelman Handicap for older Ohio-breds, has attracted a full field that includes the last two winners of the race.
Devil Time, the defending champion and 123-pound highweight, will concede at least six pounds to his rivals in the 1 1/16-mile turf race.
If morning-line favorite Beyond the Waves loses the $100,000 New Castle Handicap at 1 1/8 miles on the turf Sunday at Delaware Park, it likely will happen because this 6-year-old mare has forgotten how to win.
Class is no problem for Beyond the Waves. She has run first or second in 10 of 20 starts and earned $144,794 on the turf. Condition is no problem, either. She ran second last out, behind Lilac Queen in the Grade 3 Bewitch Handicap at Keeneland.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Some cast members have changed, but the star is the same for Saturday's $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Azeri, the reigning Horse of the Year, will start as an overwhelming favorite in the Vanity, searching for her 10th consecutive victory. Supporting her is a cast of six that includes three stakes winners - Bare Necessities, Keys to the Heart, and Meguial.
ELMONT, N.Y. - In the distaff division, there's Azeri and then there's everybody else. On Saturday, while Azeri figures to toy with six rivals in the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park, the best of the rest will congregate at Belmont Park for the Grade 1, $300,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Needing a work for his filly and knowing the track condition wasn't going to get any better any time soon, trainer Rusty Arnold sent Final Round out Thursday morning for her final move before next Saturday's Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes.
Working in company with a maiden named Retroactive, Final Round drilled five furlongs in 1:00.65 over Belmont's sloppy main track.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - The Ohio Derby has produced six winners who have gone on to capture million-dollar races. The most recent is Milwaukee Brew, who won the Ohio Derby in 2000 and then won the 2002 Santa Anita Handicap.
This year, the Grade 2, $300,000 Ohio Derby has the potential to add to that list as several members of the seven-horse field appear capable of earning their way into important races later this year. Wild and Wicked and Midway Road figure to vie for favoritism in the Ohio Derby while Private City and Crowned King cannot be discounted.
