INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The newest Hall of Fame jockey has two scores to settle Thursday at Hollywood Park. Mike Smith rides Bayou the Moon in a three-other-than turf allowance, Smith's first turf race since Prized Friend jumped the rail in a stakes race last Saturday. The seventh-race feature on Thursday also is the second race back for Bayou the Moon, whose unlucky April 16 trip under Smith resulted in a third-place finish.
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DRF Past Performances
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Californian emerged from his upset win in the Forerunner Stakes at Keeneland on April 17 in such good condition that trainer Kristin Mulhall is not hesitant to bring him back following a two-week break in Friday's $100,000 Crown Royal American Turf at Churchill Downs.
"He won easily enough and had plenty left," Mulhall said. "He was bucking and playing when he got back to the barn."
Major Hero was good enough to finish third in the 1999 Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park while racing on the flat with California trainer Neil Drysdale.
Now, in the midst of a second career - as a steeplechaser - Major Hero makes his first start in a six-figure stakes in nearly three years in Thursday's $100,000 Hard Scuffle Steeplechase at Churchill Downs.
Run over 2 1/16 miles on turf, the Hard Scuffle is restricted to novices who have not won over hurdles before March 1, 2002.
Repository won last year's Mamzelle Stakes at the juicy price of 12-1. Coming off a stakes win at Keeneland and with the high-powered connections of D. Wayne Lukas and Jerry Bailey behind her, she figures to be a much shorter price Thursday when the $100,000 Mamzelle is run for the seventh time.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - This is the day that Derby fever starts to heat up. The Thursday before the Kentucky Derby is when many out-of-town fans start filtering into Louisville, ready to yell and party and bet and whatever else it is that fired-up horseplayers do.
Nearly 20,000 of those racing denizens will get a head start on Derby weekend by turning out at Churchill Downs. The $100,000 La Troienne Stakes is the highlight of a 10-race card that also includes the $100,000 Mamzelle Stakes, the $100,000 Hard Scuffle Steeplechase, three allowances, and one starter allowance.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Four years ago, when Bob Baffert held the strongest hand going into both the Kentucky Oaks and Derby, he was confident he would become the first trainer since 1952 to sweep both Churchill Downs classics.
Baffert nailed the first half of that elusive double when Silverbulletday captured the 1999 Oaks as the heavy favorite, but missed the second half when his favored entry of Excellent Meeting and General Challenge finished fifth and 11th behind Charismatic.
"I really thought we were going to get both," Baffert recalled.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Pick a trainer, any Oaks trainer. Chances are, he will say pretty much what Carl Nafzger is saying about the race.
"When those gates open Friday, they're going to separate the cream from the gravy," said Nafzger, who will saddle My Boston Gal, one of the favorites for the $500,000 Kentucky Oaks on Friday at Churchill Downs. "It's just that I don't think anybody's smart enough - at least not right now - to know how that's going to turn out."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - For those worried about both the quality and quantity of Thoroughbreds in northern California, Thursday's first race at Bay Meadows may answer the first of those concerns.
Only five 2-year-old fillies are entered for the 4 1/2-furlong maiden race - the most interesting race on a Thursday card that also includes a pair of $40,000 starter allowance races - but their owners and trainers believe in the quality of each filly.
AUBURN, Wash. - Road Afleet may or may not have been the best horse in Sunday's $35,000 Seattle Handicap. Colterkind looked stronger than Road Afleet when he crossed the wire a half-length ahead of him in a near-track-record 1:07.80 for six furlongs.