GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lone Star Deputy and Leo's Last Hurrahy, who finished a neck apart in the $100,000 Grand Prairie Turf Challenge at Lone Star Park last month, will be rematched in Monday's $200,000 USA Stakes.
The 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds is one of seven stakes on the Lone Star Million Day card. The program is led by the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Although more than half of the 3-year-old fillies entered in the $150,000 Stonerside at Lone Star Park on Saturday have already won at least one stakes, the most intriguing starters appear to be three fillies who have not: Real Bear, Miss Bridget Jones, and Eternal Cup.
The Stonerside, to be run over seven furlongs, drew 11 fillies, six of whom are stakes winners: Letithappencaptain, Valid Pulpit, Lady Mallory, Fabulous Brush, Souris, and Scottish Heritage.
But it's the starters with something to prove who could prove toughest to beat.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Coding is the lone stakes winner in Saturday's $50,000-added Bob Bryant Stakes at Prairie Meadows. The six-furlong race has drawn a field of six Iowa-bred 3-year-old fillies.
Coding won the $65,000 Iowa Sorority here last Aug. 31. A daughter of Caller I.D., she has finished second against open company in both of her starts this year.
In her 2003 debut, Coding rallied to be second in the Goldfinch here April 18. She returned in a nonwinners-of-three allowance sprint May 5 and was beaten two lengths.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Come Hither, a fast-closing second when beaten by a neck in the Alyssa Handicap in her last race, will be favored on Saturday afternoon in the $35,000 Brent's Princess Handicap. She faces eight other Ohio-bred fillies and mares in the six-furlong race.
Come Hither, a 4-year-old chestnut daughter of Left Banker, is the lone stakes winner in the race. She won the six-furlong Tougaloo here last April.
Sir Traver heads a field of nine Indiana-bred 3-year-olds, each searching for his first stakes win, in Saturday's $35,000 Oliver Stakes at Indiana Downs.
Sir Traver has beaten statebred allowance company here in his two starts this year, with bth race having come in the past month.
On April 26, Sir Traver rallied to score a 1 1/4-length victory in a 5 1/2-furlong event for nonwinners of two races lifetime. The gelded son of Presidential Order returned to score a 1 3/4-length win on May 14 at Saturday's six-furlong distance while being clocked in a brisk 1:10.20.
Monmouth Park is set to open its 2003 extended meet on Saturday with storm clouds - both literally and figuratively - gathering on the horizon.
Most immediately, wet weather is forecast throughout the three-day opening weekend, threatening to force Monmouth's two scheduled graded stakes, the Grade 3 Red Bank Handicap on Saturday and the Grade 3 Jersey Derby on Monday, off the turf.
When Monmouth Park wrapped up its 78-day meet last year with a 10 percent drop in handle and 8 percent decline in attendance, Monmouth officials immediately went on the offensive. The cause for the drop, the officials said, was plain and simple: The Monmouth meet was too long.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rick Hiles said he wouldn't mind seeing San Dare perform well enough at the Churchill Downs spring meet to be invited to run Aug. 16 in the Midwest's premier filly and mare turf race, the Beverly D. at Arlington Park.
Trouble is, a few other trainers might have the same goal in mind. In fact, the Saturday feature at Churchill, the 27th running of the $150,000 Early Times Mint Julep Handicap, has drawn such an accomplished group of fillies and mares that whomever emerges as the winnerwill almost surely become a candidate for the Beverly D.
CHICAGO - In late December at Fair Grounds, a downcast Mike Stidham watched Attico return to be unsaddled after a dismal 10th-place finish in the Pago Hop Handicap. Attico had won two straight races and trained with gusto leading into the Pago Hop. Rarely had a bad showing so perplexed Stidham.
Five months later, Attico's improving form begs a more pleasant question - can she win in a full field of good grass horses in the Reluctant Guest Handicap at Arlington?
With rain in the forecast, Saturday's $75,000 Ben Cohen Stakes, a sprint at Pimlico scheduled for turf, could end up being run on the main track.
Twelve entered the five-furlong race.
If the Ben Cohen remains on the grass, Abderian is the likely favorite. A 6-year-old trained by Ben Feliciano Jr., Abderian had a troubled trip in the Grade 3 Aegon Turf Sprint in his last start, May 2 at Churchill Downs. Abderian finished seventh, but was beaten only 2 1/4 lengths.