Delta Downs will close out its Thoroughbred meet this weekend with two six-figure stakes races: the $100,000 Goddess for fillies and mares at one mile Saturday, and the $150,000 Gulf Coast Classic at 1 1/16 miles Sunday.
Delta's purses reached record levels this meet with help from slot machines that were installed in February 2002. This meet, purses rose from $160,000 a day in November to $230,000 by February.
Grand Island, Neb. - Leading trainer David Anderson put on an exhibition this past weekend, becoming the first trainer at this track to saddle four winners on consecutive days.
Along the way, he also won eight straight races in which he had a starter, believed to be a local record according to track officials.
The string started Sunday, March 9, when Calling Ticket rolled to victory as the 6-5 favorite over allowance company in the day's featured allowance race.
The purse for the Indian Maid Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for older fillies and mares Oct. 11, was recently increased from $100,000 to $150,000 and is now part of the Breeders' Cup special stakes program. The race's new name will be the Indian Maid Breeders' Cup Handicap.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Composure, the top 3-year-old filly in California this year, has been retired because of a cracked sesamoid in her right foreleg, trainer Bob Baffert said on Wednesday.
The injury ends a career that showed considerable promise.
won two Grade 1 races at this meeting - the Las Virgenes Stakes and Santa Anita Oaks - and was considered a leading candidate for the Kentucky Oaks in May. The injury was diagnosed earlier this week, Baffert said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For nearly as long as he can remember, trainer Greg Foley has been getting up early in the morning to tend to racehorses.
"I was probably nine or 10 when I first started grooming horses for my dad," said Foley, whose father, Dravo, and sister, Vickie, also are active trainers on the Kentucky circuit. "I got my first license in 1978 or 1979."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Volponi, the upset winner of last October's Breeders' Cup Classic, took the first steps toward defending that title Tuesday with a three-furlong workout clocked in 37.64 seconds over Belmont Park's training track.
The work, the eighth fastest of 13 recorded at the distance and conducted over a fast track, was Volponi's first since his 43-1 Classic victory on Oct. 26 at Arlington Park. "He went well, steady,'' trainer Phil Johnson said. "He actually went a quarter a few days ago to get his attention.''
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - On paper, Thursday's $38,000 feature at Gulfstream Park looks like a wide-open race. But anybody who saw Powerful Appeal's last performance will have little trouble deciding who to wager on in this second-level allowance race, scheduled for nine furlongs on the turf.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Jack Wolf watched President Bush's speech to the nation along with many other Americans on Monday night. The talk of a possible war in the Middle East hit a little closer to home in the Wolf household, though. Wolf and his wife, Laurie, are planning to be in Dubai next week to watch their Harlan's Holiday compete in the $6 million Dubai World Cup.
A potentially massive problem that could have jeopardized the running of the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes on Saturday at Turfway Park apparently has been resolved after officials acted swiftly Tuesday to contain an equine virus diagnosed in three horses stabled at the Florence, Ky., track.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Forty Nine Deeds's second-place finish to Colorful Tour on opening weekend at Oaklawn Park is starting to look like a pretty nice credential. The two horses met Feb. 1, and since then, Colorful Tour has gone on two win two major stakes at the meet and is headed next to the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 5.
