SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - A pair of impressive maidens won on Tuesday's card, and both were bet down to favoritism.
In the fifth race, Overflight, owned by R. D. Hubbard and Constance Sczesny, made his first career start, and to the surprise of no one was an easy winner. Overflight's latest workout was a half-mile handily from the gate in 45.60 seconds.
NEW ORLEANS - Maybe sometime before they race Sunday in the New Orleans Handicap, Best of the Rest and Valhol can compare scars.
Best of the Rest, an 8-year-old, has undergone four surgeries on his knees. Valhol, 7, has been under the knife three times, once to take chips out of both knees, another time for an ankle chip, and once to remove a fractured splint bone. For good measure, he nearly died from a terrible case of pneumonia.
NEW ORLEANS - The field for Sunday's New Orleans Handicap continued to grow Wednesday, with the connections of Strive announcing he will run, swelling the prospective field to 11.
Strive will ship from trainer Bill Mott's base at Payson Park, where he has been breezing at regular intervals. Strive finished second in his only start this year, a Gulfstream allowance race, and has raced in stakes only twice, finishing fifth in the Aventura at Gulfstream last spring and a better fourth last fall in the Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct. Jerry Bailey is expected to ride Strive.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Sir Cherokee will bring more two-turn experience into the $75,000 Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds on Saturday than most of his rivals - if he goes.
The winter weather that has gripped Oaklawn Park since Monday night is threatening the colt's training schedule, and if he is unable to train Thursday or Friday he could pass the one-mile Southwest and wait for the $125,000 Rebel here March 22, trainer Michael Tomlinson said on Wednesday.
Entries for the Southwest were to be taken Thursday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - In a decision that will make jockey Jerry Bailey happy but likely disappoint race fans hoping to see a matchup of California's two best older horses, trainer Bobby Frankel on Tuesday said he would not run Medaglia d'Oro in Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Handicap, citing what he believes is an illogical weight assignment.
Medaglia d'Oro, who comes off a seven-length victory in the Strub Stakes for 4-year-olds, was assigned 124 pounds, the same as the 5-year-old Congaree, who beat older horses in the San Pasqual and San Antonio handicaps earlier this meet.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Nine-year-old Kona Gold carried 124 pounds when he finished off the board in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Handicap, nearly six lengths behind 6-year-old Avanzado, who carried 116. Kona Gold's trainer, Bruce Headley, did the math. "Eight pounds, six lengths, three years - that's a set-up for subtraction," Headley said, "There's got to be some [weight] subtracting in there."
ARCADIA, Calif. - Ten starts into his career, Popular has established himself as a fast horse with severe distance limitations. Similarly, Good Cop Bad Cop does not hold back when he runs on dirt. Even if he could, he wouldn't. Not from post 10 in a one-mile dirt race that is the race 7 feature Thursday at Santa Anita.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Stakes winners A New Twist and Chamrousse are the name horses in Thursday's $40,000 third-level optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park, but the horse to beat in the six-furlong race may be Wish It Were.
Wish It Were, a 4-year-old daughter of Is It True, comes off a fifth-place finish in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint here on Jan. 25. Wish It Were broke slowly and was 10 lengths off the early pace. Despite coming six wide into the stretch, Wish It Were made up three lengths of a 4 1/2-length deficit in the final furlong.
