BALTIMORE - The trainers of the top contenders in Saturday's $200,000 Citgo Dixie Stakes at Pimlico Race Course will be paying as much attention to the weather as to their competition.
Blue Steller, Del Mar Show, and Sarafan all perform better on firm turf, making their status questionable for the Grade 2 turf race. And even if they run, they could be compromised by the conditions, since the National Weather Service on Thursday predicted a strong storm to hit this area on Friday.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Nobody knew it at the time, but 4 1/2 hours before War Emblem won last year's Preakness Stakes, a Belmont Stakes winner was being born.
Sarava, just a maiden winner entering the Sir Barton Stakes, romped to a four-length victory in the race. Three weeks later he upended War Emblem's Triple Crown bid by becoming the longest priced (70-1) winner of the Belmont Stakes.
BALTIMORE - The weekend at Pimlico Race Course started well for trainer Lisa Lewis, who hoped it only would get better.
Lewis sent out Belong To Sea to a narrow victory in Thursday's $100,000 Miss Preakness Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. With that out of the way, Lewis had nearly 50 hours to fret over Saturday's Preakness Stakes, in which she was to race Kissin' Saint, a live longshot in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Makeup Artist fell a neck short of winning her stakes debut in the Providencia Stakes at Santa Anita last month.
Considering the race was her first start against winners and first start in three months, the performance left many observers impressed with the filly's development.
When Makeup Artist returns in Saturday's $100,000 Senorita Stakes at Hollywood Park, many expect her to win the one-mile turf race, which trainer John Shirreffs hopes will be a springboard to more lucrative races in coming months.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Bobby Frankel saw the rainy forecast and decided to make a last-minute substitution and will run You in Saturday's $200,000 Shuvee Handicap at Belmont Park instead of Sightseek.
Frankel also entered Wild Spirit, a Group 1 winner in Chile, in the Grade 2 Shuvee. The formidable Frankel team will run as an uncoupled entry in the one-mile race, which drew a strong field of six fillies and mares.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Coastalota, the state's champion older female last year, will meet the undefeated Dazed for the first time Saturday in the $50,000 JEH Stallion Station Stakes at Lone Star Park.
The 6 1/2-furlong race is restricted to fillies and mares bred in Texas.
Coastalota has not raced since she finished third to Grade 1 winner Take Charge Lady in the Great State Challenge Distaff on Dec. 7.
"We were prepping for another stakes after that, and she had a spider bite her," said Randy Mayfield, who trains Coastalota.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Instead of trying to win the Saturday feature at Pimlico - a little race known as the Preakness - trainer Greg Foley will stay home to try to win the Saturday feature at Churchill Downs, the Dogwood Stakes.
Foley had been ambivalent about taking his stable star, Champali, to Baltimore, but all bets were off anyway when Champali came down with colic Tuesday. Now the veteran trainer will focus on the Grade 3, $100,000 Dogwood with Golden Marlin, a hard-trying filly who figures as one of the favorites in a field of seven 3-year-old fillies.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The conditions of Arlington's Saturday feature say it's an allowance race, but the quality says stakes.
There were 10 horses entered in the seven-furlong race for nonwinners of two high-end races since the first of the year. Only Apt to Be runs under a $100,000 claiming option. Apt to Be, There's Zealous, and Bright Valour form the nucleus of an outstanding field.
There's Zealous trains in Kentucky with Paul McGee, but he loves Arlington. Of his six career wins, four have come in seven Arlington starts.
The leap from maiden special weight to stakes company can be formidable, but those who saw Cinema Paradisa's maiden score at Bay Meadows on April 27 will not be inclined to discount her chances in Saturday's $60,000-added Emeryville Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs.
MIAMI - Castlebrook, who battled with Coolbythepool in the last three years for supremacy in the local filly and mare handicap division, joined her former rival in the breeding shed this week. The retirement came just days after she finished sixth while making her 2003 debut in an allowance race here Sunday.
Castlebrook was purchased privately by the Town & Country Corp. after her 2002 campaign. Town & Country also campaigned Coolbythepool, whom they retired and bred to Montbrook at the end of the 2002 season.