EAST BOSTON, MASS. - There's a bug buzz in Boston again.
Suffolk Downs has often been the launchpad for apprentice careers, and Mark Phillips appears to have the talent to be the latest to cut his teeth on New England racing.
A 17-year-old native of Dublin, Ireland, Phillips has been racing for just six months in the United States after two years of schooling in riding academies and at The Curragh back home.
Mostly because Perfect Drift was such a well-regarded contender during the Triple Crown chase last year, one of his prep races has become something of a comic curiosity among handicappers: the WEBN Frog Stakes. Never before, it was widely noted, had a Kentucky Derby winner won the Frog Stakes - or perhaps any other race with such an odd name, either.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Welcome to Oaklawn Park, take 2.
A week after winter temperatures left the local racing surface frozen and forced the cancellation of the first three days of the meet, Oaklawn is set to begin on Friday a 52-day meet that will run through April 12.
Temperatures should be agreeable, with forecasters calling for partly cloudy skies and a high of 60 degrees.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Since the retirement last fall of Farda Amiga, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2002, there has been a void in trainer Paulo Lobo's stable at Hollywood Park.
In the last three months, from a limited number of starters, Lobo has had one winner - Viernes in the Waya Handicap at Hollywood Park on Nov. 28.
She returns in Friday's $75,000 Reloy Handicap at Santa Anita, a race that could lead to more lucrative stakes for her.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - This is the time of year when a first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds can come up tougher than a graded stakes. A case in point may be Friday's sixth race at Gulfstream Park, which will provide the 2003 debuts of such exciting prospects as Ten Cents a Shine and Senor Swinger and serves as a potential prep for the Grade 1 Fountain of Youth Stakes on Feb. 15.
NEW ORLEANS - Early Flyer's best form is very stale since it has been close to two years since he won a race. But in his youth, Early Flyer had some ability, and he has been working like a machine at Fair Grounds in January. Friday could be the day the 5-year-old Early Flyer gets his career back on track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Horsemen and horses will receive a break from the bitter cold when temperatures climb above the freezing mark by the end of the week in New York. Racing fans also will be treated to a rare weekday overnight stakes at Aqueduct on Friday.
Nine fillies and mares were entered in the $60,000 Videogenic, named for a former New York claiming horse who became a multiple stakes winner.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Nichole's Delight, an impressive 6 1/4-length winner of the one-mile Oregon Hers Stakes Dec. 14 in her last race at Portland Meadows, returns to take on allowance rivals at the same distance in Friday's featured eighth race for older fillies and mares.
Nichole's Delight, a 4-year-old daughter of Jeff's Companion who races for breeder George Hurliman, shipped here from Turf Paradise and took the Oregon Hers. She then returned to Phoenix and posted a six-length triumph over $12,500 claiming runners at six furlongs on Jan. 17, and now returns to her native state.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Pleasantly Perfect, the winner of the Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap last October, launches a campaign on Sunday that may lead to the other side of the world and back again in a quest for the Horse of the Year title.
Unraced since winning the Goodwood, Pleasantly Perfect returns in Sunday's $300,000 San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita, a race that will draw top handicap horse Congaree.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. won the 9,500th race of his prolific career in Wednesday's fifth race at Santa Anita.
The world's all-time leading rider, Pincay, 56, reached 9,499 on Saturday, but needed 15 more mounts on Saturday, Sunday, and part of Wednesday's program before reaching the milestone. He nearly scored victory number 9,500 in Wednesday's second race when his mount, Jaciro, finished a nose behind the heavily favored Point Clear. It was one of four runner-up finishes for Pincay in the 15-mount span.
