GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Mr Ross, who for years has been one of the top handicap horses in the region, will make a rare start around one turn Sunday, when he makes his 8-year-old debut in an allowance at Lone Star Park.
The six-furlong race, the fifth on a nine-race program, will be Mr Ross's first start since Sept. 2, when he won his second $30,000 Silver Bullet Centennial at Remington Park.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - New Jersey-bred mares will wind up in the spotlight Sunday at Monmouth Park as the $50,000 Dearly Precious Stakes did not fill.
That leaves the $50,000 Open Mind Handicap for statebreds at six furlongs as the featured race on the card.
Uphill Skier will be awfully tough in this spot, if she runs. Trainer Ben Perkins Jr. also entered Uphill Skier in Saturday's Revidere Stakes at one mile on the turf for 3-year-old fillies. Perkins planned to run her in the Revidere if the race was shifted to the main track.
MIAMI - Calder racing secretary Bob Umphrey will have a lot more on his mind than whether Funny Cide wins the Triple Crown when he journeys to New York this week for the Belmont Stakes.
Umphrey's main agenda during the visit will be to drum up business for Calder's increasingly popular Summit of Speed program on July 12. The Summit of Speed consists of six sprint stakes with a total value of $1.75 million, including the Grade 3 Smile Sprint and Grade 2 Princess Rooney handicaps, both of which will be worth $500,000 for the first time in 2003.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As a 10-race Sunday program kicks off the second half of the 52-day spring meet at Churchill, the names atop the jockey and owner standings probably come as surprises to most racing fans.
Through Thursday, Cornelio Velasquez led all jockeys with
23 wins, while Peter Willmott was the leading owner with five wins from just 10 starters.
Velasquez, riding his first full Churchill meet, held a four-win lead over Robby Albarado and perennial kingpin Pat Day going into Friday's action.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - On the surface, it may have appeared to be business as usual on the backstretch here Friday.
But it was impossible not to feel the undercurrents of shock and horror, tinged with sadness and disbelief, the morning after the Ontario fire marshal's office announced that arson was the cause of the barn fire that claimed the lives of 34 horses here last Aug. 4.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Chopinina, last year's Sovereign Award-winning champion turf filly or mare, is scheduled to launch her 2003 campaign Sunday at Woodbine in the Grade 2, $278,200 Nassau Stakes.
Chopinina has never won a stakes, but her second-place finish in the Grade 1 Atto Mile last September was instrumental in winning her the Sovereign. She won two optional claimers last June, and has been idle since finishing eight lengths back in 11th in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Arlington Oct. 26.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Entries have risen dramatically as Bay Meadows enters the final two weeks of its spring meeting.
Bay Meadows officials cannot offer just one reason for the increase in entries but point to several possible explanations.
"Because the meet is going into the last few weeks, I think people want to run here so they don't have to ship into fair sites," racing secretary Greg Brent said. The fair season begins June 11 at Stockton.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Three years ago, trainer Wilf Jones had a great season at Fort Erie, winning 24 races at a 26 percent clip. The star of his barn was La Picotte, a mare who, with five victories, helped Jones reach fifth place in the trainer standings.
But the following year, Jones's production collapsed to seven wins, and then last year to six. The once hefty win percentage dropped to an ordinary 10 and 11.