BALTIMORE - It was a sea of mud at Pimlico Race Course Friday, but the result of the $600,000 was crystal clear.
Mineshaft, in a powerful, dominating performance that stamped him as one of the best older horses in the country, roared past Western Pride at the top of the stretch and drew clear for a 3 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1 race to brighten an otherwise wet, miserable afternoon.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The Hi Oak Silver on Sunday at Arlington is just a $40,000 overnight handicap, but the race has lured two of the fastest Illinois-bred 3-year-olds in training, Wiggins and Shandy.
The supporting cast is fine, too. Link to Ordway has won two straight races by a combined nine lengths. My Beau Mister Joe and Roy's Trigger both have won $100,000 stakes races, while Pico D J Alex was second in one of them.
MIAMI - The Calder jockey colony, already stung by the loss of reigning champion Cornelio Velasquez, will suffer a couple of more blows when Jose Ferrer and Jose Rivera II head to New Jersey for next week's opening of Monmouth Park.
Ferrer, who has been a regular at Monmouth the past three summers, has ridden a dozen winners during the opening 16 days of the meet and is second in the jockey standings behind only Manoel Cruz.
There was one fewer graded stakes than last year when Philadelphia Park announced its 2003 stakes schedule - the Philadelphia Breeders' Cup Sprint, a Grade 3 race for older horses at six furlongs.
The Philadelphia BC had been run since 1986 and had been won by such top-caliber sprinters as High Brite (1987), Friendly Lover (1995-96), and Say Florida Sandy (2001). Artax ran second in 1999, the same year he won the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
Two other stakes, the Pistol Packer for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles, and the Kindergarten for 2-year-old fillies, also were dropped.
BALTIMORE - In a race in which every horse had the lead at one stage, Mandy's Gold made the front when it counted most, running down Summer Colony in the final strides to win Friday's Grade 3, $150,000 Pimlico Breeders' Cup Distaff Handicap by a neck.
It was 3 3/4 lengths back to Stormy Frolic, who finished 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Dance the Slew. Smok'n Frolic, Kiss a Miss, and You'll Be Happy were all scratched.
Mandy's Gold, a 5-year-old daughter of Gilded Time, won for the 11th time in 21 career starts and pushed her earnings to $1,026,244 for Steeplechase Farm.
BALTIMORE - Roar Emotion took command coming out of the gate, turned back a challenge from odds-on favorite Santa Catarina at the half-mile pole, and outlasted Fircroft in deep stretch to record a half-length victory in Friday's Grade 2, $200,000 Black Eyed Susan Stakes at rainswept Pimlico.
It was 8 1/2 lengths back in third to Santa Catarina, the 4-5 favorite trained by Bob Baffert. Completing the order of finish were Ivanavinalot, Xtra Heart, Grace Bay, Blushing Valleys, and Lets Just Do It.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Alpenfest created a buzz when he won a maiden race at Hollywood Park May 1. Making his career debut, Alpenfest scored a three-length victory at 4 1/2 furlongs, one of the more impressive performances by a juvenile this spring.
How Alpenfest compares to other recent 2-year-old winners will be tested Sunday when Alpenfest starts in the $75,000 Willard L. Proctor Memorial Stakes. Run at five furlongs, the Proctor is restricted to non-winners of two races.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - In the last month, trainer Laura de Seroux admits to being both concerned and delighted at the way that Azeri, the reigning Horse of the Year, has worked in preparation for the $200,000 Milady Breeders' Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park May 26.
A half-mile in 47.60 seconds on April 26 was followed by two blazing fast workouts this month: five furlongs in 58 seconds on May 6 and in 57.80 seconds on Friday.
ELMONT, N.Y. - No one would have guessed that Funny Cide and Spite the Devil, the one-two finishers in last fall's Sleepy Hollow for New York-bred juveniles, would go on to register longshot victories in the Kentucky Derby and the Withers on a memorable first Saturday in May for the New York-bred program.
So who knows - might this summer's Alabama winner be lurking somewhere in Sunday's $100,000-added Bouwerie Stakes?
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In a subtle change that signifies a growing trend in the Thoroughbred racing industry, Churchill Downs is slightly raising the level of weights that horses will carry in most races, effective June 1.
Although not applicable to all races, the change effectively raises the minimum weight assignments in most races to 116 pounds, Doug Bredar, Churchill's racing secretary, said Friday. Currently, the minimum in many Churchill races is 114 pounds.
