Kool K.J., who defeated some of the best Louisiana-bred fillies in training by five lengths last out in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Lassie, will face two new challenges in the $50,000 Creme De La Creme at Delta Downs on Saturday night: two turns and the undefeated Letithappencaptain.
The Creme De La Creme, a 6 1/2-furlong race around two turns, has drawn a field of eight 3-year-old statebred fillies, and should produce starters for the $100,000 Green Oaks Handicap at Delta on Feb. 23.
Trainer Greg Foley has, in Champali, possibly the best 3-year-old colt based in Kentucky this winter. Foley also has a nice 3-year-old filly named Golden Marlin, who seeks to become the pro tem leader of her division in the $50,000 Cincinnati Trophy at Turfway Park on Saturday. A field of nine is entered for the 6 1/2-furlong stakes.
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Channing Way and Knoll Lake have won 13 of their 19 combined local starts. When the bell rings for Saturday's Princess of Palms Handicap at Turf Paradise, they should dominate the six-furlong race for fillies and mares. The $35,000 stakes has attracted a field of seven.
Channing Way, owned by Lawrence Becker and trained by Dan Morgan, is the 125-pound highweight on the strength of her 11 career wins in 17 outings and earnings of more than $323,000. A 5-year-old, Channing Way has won 6 of 7 starts at Turf Paradise and 9 of her 11 wins have come at six furlongs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There will be a lot more at stake than just a $100,000 purse when 13 3-year-olds get their first class check of the season in Saturday's Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
The Holy Bull is the first major race of the winter for 3-year-olds based in south Florida and serves as a prep to both the Grade 1 Fountain of Youth Stakes and $1 million Florida Derby later this meet.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Labamta Babe took a couple of steps back, and now he is taking big strides forward. After winning the Santa Catalina Stakes one year ago, he was injured and needed time off until midsummer. Labamta Babe put in a poor effort in the King's Bishop Stakes, but the emergence of another Ed Gann-owned colt, Medaglia d'Oro, afforded trainer Bobby Frankel the luxury of running Labamta Babe in softer spots to build the colt's confidence.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The transition is nearly complete for Joe Orseno. With only one horse remaining in his Gulfstream Park stable for longtime client Frank Stronach, Orseno essentially is starting over in an outstanding training career that spans more than 25 years.
"We had a really great run," Orseno said recently. "But my contract with Mr. Stronach is up, and all I've got left for him is Krieger," the runner-up in the Jan. 4 Appleton Handicap.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The road to the 2003 Kentucky Derby begins in earnest here Saturday with the Holy Bull Stakes, and nobody knows the road better than Nick Zito, who will be represented in the Grade 3 race by Seek Gold.
"The beauty about having young horses during this part of the year is that you've still got the dream," said Zito, who has realized the dream twice, winning the Kentucky Derby in 1991 with Strike the Gold and again three years later with Go for Gin.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Saskya enters her 5-year-old season a relatively fresh mare. It is not by design. Since November, Saskya has been scratched from four stakes at three locations along the East Coast because of wet tracks.
Although light snow is in the forecast for Friday, Saskya should find a fast track at Aqueduct where she will face six rivals in a $54,000 classified allowance. The six-furlong race could serve as a stepping-stone to the $75,000 Correction Handicap here on Feb. 1.
NEW ORLEANS - The Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 25 is the official start of Fair Grounds's 3-year-old stakes season, but consider Friday's ninth-race feature here a prelude to the Lecomte and what lies ahead.
This is the first two-turn, 3-year-old allowance of the Fair Grounds meet, and a colt who shows his connections something now could find himself in the Grade 3 Risen Star on Feb. 16.