ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Mike Mitchell wasn't looking at a recent trend in California racing when he entered Bush Triumph in Saturday's $100,000 Grade 3 Brown Bess Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.
Bush Triumph, who ran in claiming races earlier in her career, makes her stakes debut in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Touched an Angel heads a contentious field of six older fillies and mares in Saturday's six-furlong allowance feature at Portland Meadows.
Touched an Angel is coming off a win in a similar spot on Jan. 4, when she bested the talented Maria Kay by a half-length after running 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:06.40.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich of Maryland unveiled Thursday a plan for slot machines at Maryland tracks that would allow Pimlico Race Course, Laurel Park, Rosecroft Raceway, and a new track in western Maryland to install 2,500 machines each, a number well below the recommendation of the Thoroughbred industry.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Bill Spawr was fined $8,500 on Wednesday as a result of two of his winners at Santa Anita in 2001 and 2002 testing positive for an excessive amount of albuterol, a medication used to aid horses with breathing problems.
According to a ruling released by the California Horse Racing Board, Spawr reached a stipulated agreement with the board that will not include a suspension. There was no hearing in the case.
Albuterol is allowed to appear in postrace tests at minute levels, but the Spawr horses were found to be over the legal limit.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Thursday's eighth and 10th races at Gulfstream Park were canceled after a section of the inside rail located between the three-eighths and five-sixteenths poles on the main track was damaged during the running of the afternoon's seventh race.
The ninth race, carded on the turf course, went off as scheduled.
PHOENIX - Nine months ago, Century City was in Ireland, scaring the dickens out of the horse many considered the best in the world last year, Rock of Gibraltar.
Century City's strange journey since has now brought him to Arizona as likely the horse to beat in Saturday's $150,000 Turf Paradise Breeders' Cup Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile turf race that is the middle leg of a stakes tripleheader that also includes the $100,000 Turf Paradise Derby and $75,000 Arizona Oaks.
By running in races in Arizona or restricted to California-breds, Siberland has been flying below the radar. That all might change quite soon.
Siberland faces just four runners in Saturday's $100,000 Turf Paradise Derby, in which he figures to be a heavy favorite. If he runs as well in that race as he has in his last four starts - all victories - he will then step up and face the best Kentucky Derby prospects on the West Coast at Santa Anita.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Offlee Wild, upset winner of the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes, worked five furlongs in 1:00.60 with jockey Mark Guidry aboard at Gulfstream Park on Thursday as he begin preparations for his next start, the Grade 1 Fountain of Youth Stakes on Feb. 15.
Offlee Wild rallied to a game head decision over Powerful Touch in his 3-year-old and two-turn debut, the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Last season, the Calder-based Cellars Shiraz dominated the 3-year-old filly turf division in south Florida, beginning with a victory in the $100,000 Herecomesthebride Stakes.
Saturday, another Calder resident, Sweettrickydancer, will attempt to follow in Cellars Shiraz's footsteps when she puts her four race-win streak on the line against 10 others in the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride at Gulfstream Park.