LAFAYETTE, La. - Riders and trainers continued to win races in bunches last week at Evangeline Downs. The streakiest of all, though, was a colt named Lota Prince, who was a maiden when the Evangeline meet began a month ago.
Lota Prince won for the third time in as many local starts in Saturday night's B. B. "Sixty" Rayburn Stakes.
Lota Prince's ($11) victory was the third of the night for jockey Jason Trevort.
SHAKOPEE, Mn. - Canterbury Park officials got some good and bad news on opening day last Friday. The bad news was that the measure allowing the installation of slot machines at the racetrack may have been sacrificed as part of last-minute budget negotiations at the Minnesota statehouse.
The good news was that the track reported its best Friday night business ever when a crowd of 9,192 wagered on the nine-race card.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - The development of Lindsay Jean has "been fun" for trainer Art Sherman, he said.
A 5-year-old mare, Lindsay Jean has won both her starts this year, the Grade 3 Brown Bess Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 1 and the Miss America at Bay Meadows on April 5.
She is unlikely to be favored in Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Yerba Buena Breeders' Cup Handicap over Bay Meadows' Longden Turf Course, but she will be tough to beat in the 1 1/8-mile race that may have nine entrants.
Paul Jones, the leading trainer at Los Alamitos, has moved part of his stable to Ruidoso Downs and will run two horses in the opening-day trials to the Grade 1, $550,000 Ruidoso Futurity on Friday afternoon.
The nation's champion trainer last year, Jones will be represented by Latest Version and Planet Holland in the 22 Ruidoso Futurity trials, which begin with an 11 a.m. Mountain first-post time. The 10 fastest qualifiers will return for the finals on June 8.
MIAMI - Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. briefly considered spending Memorial Day weekend in Texas, running Best of the Rest in Monday's $300,000 Lone Star Handicap.
Unfortunately for the connections of the seven other older horses nominated to run at Calder that afternoon in the $100,000 Memorial Day Handicap, Plesa ultimately decided to celebrate the holiday at home. That means Best of the Rest will go to the gate as the odds-on favorite to win the Grade 3 Memorial Day Handicap for the second consecutive year.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - The races were canceled at Assiniboia Downs on Sunday after the third race, and the cancellation spilled over to Monday's card, which also was called off.
The jockeys voted 12-6 not to ride after the third race on Sunday because of what they felt were unsafe track conditions. One night of rain had left the track sloppy, with some washed-out spots over the surface.
Live racing at the track was then canceled for Monday, and the purse money that would have been available is also gone, at least for this year.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jim Day trains the favorite for this year's Labatt Woodbine Oaks.
Such news hardly would have raised a ripple in the mid-1980's through the early 1990's, when Day was the private trainer for the powerful Sam-Son Farm outfit.
Day won this country's premier race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, then known as the Canadian Oaks, four times in eight years during his Sam-Son tenure.
Classy 'n Smart was Day's first Oaks winner, in 1984. He followed that success with Tilt My Halo (1988), Tiffany's Secret (1990), and Dance Smartly (1991).
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Friday's seven-race card is first of 30 nights of live racing at Marquis Downs this season.
A total of 18 stakes races will be offered, highlighted by the $15,000 Saskatchewan Derby on closing day, Sept. 6.
Post time will be 7:05 p.m. Central, with racing scheduled every Friday and Saturday except Aug. 8 and 9.
While the 1 1/16-mile Saskatchewan Derby moves from early July to the final day of the meet, the balance of the stakes schedule is unchanged from previous years.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Grass racing returns to Woodbine this week, which usually means full fields and many intriguing betting opportunities.
The European-style E.P. Taylor turf course, which encircles the main track, is 1 1/2 miles in circumference. It has the longest turf stretch on the continent - 1,140 feet. The backstretch is three feet higher than the homestretch.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Allen Jerkens has won three runnings of the Peter Pan and two of his winners, Virginia Rapids and Best of Luck, later ran in the Belmont Stakes.
Jerkens is running Withers winner Spite the Devil in Saturday's $200,000 Peter Pan at Belmont Park. But Spite the Devil is unlikely to run in the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 7 because he is not nominated to the Triple Crown and would have to be supplemented for a fee of $100,000.