PORTLAND, Ore. - Quarter Horse fans no longer need to fret about arriving early on Friday nights to bet on their favorite breed at Portland Meadows.
Two weeks ago, Jerry Kohls, the track's racing secretary, began moving his Quarter Horse races, traditionally run as the first and the fourth races here, to the end of the program on Friday nights only.
NEW ORLEANS - Winter's Quest needed four races to win, but when she got it right, she looked good winning a maiden race on Jan. 18 at Fair Grounds. Forest Shadows didn't waste any time leaving the maiden ranks. She won in her debut here in a turf sprint on Jan. 6.
Take your pick - experience or precocity. The two fillies and seven others square off Friday in a first-level turf route at about 1 1/16 miles. The race is restricted to 3-year-old fillies.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Sligo Bay is a turf horse who will try to win the richest dirt race of winter - the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 1. Is it folly? Not if Sligo Bay runs as well on dirt as he trains on it. Sligo Bay, winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup, drilled a half-mile Tuesday at Santa Anita in 47.20 seconds, fastest of 29 workouts at the distance.
"We just wanted an easy little half, and he went beautifully," trainer Beau Greely said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Pat Reynolds is gearing up for a stakes-loaded weekend.
On Saturday, Reynolds will run Peeping Tom at Laurel Park in the $200,000 General George and Alysweep in Aqueduct's $75,000-added Best Turn. Tom's Thunder is Reynolds's stakes starter on Sunday in the $75,000-added Hollie Hughes at Aqueduct.
Reynolds believes each of his horses are capable of running a big race, but he might be most excited about Alysweep, whom he claimed for $75,000 on behalf of owner Michael Dubb Dec. 15. Alysweep won the maiden claiming race by 7 3/4 lengths.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Colorful Tour has never been one to back down from a challenge. A stakes winner each season he has raced, he will be shooting for his fourth consecutive win Saturday when he takes on heavy favorite Crafty Shaw in the Grade 3, $100,000 Essex Handicap at Oaklawn Park.
"He's a very competitive horse," said Noel Hickey, who owns and trains Colorful Tour. "He's a little fighter."
ALBANY, Calif. - Echo Eddie and El Dorado Shooter are not classic rivals in the Affirmed-Alydar sense, but they are the past two winners of the $100,000 Ken Maddy Sprint, which will be run Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.
Echo Eddie and El Dorado Shooter, both 6-year-old geldings, have similar records. El Dorado Shooter, the Golden Gate Fields record-holder at six furlongs, has 9 wins, 4 seconds, and a third in 19 starts. Echo Eddie also has 9 wins, with 6 seconds and 3 thirds in 21 starts.
The difference between the two is in their bankrolls.
NEW ORLEANS - Bonapaw won five sprint stakes at Fair Grounds the last two seasons, but it appears he won't run in even one this year.
Bonapaw's connections are so committed to making him a route horse that he wasn't even nominated to Sunday's six-furlong Taylor's Special Handicap. For Bonapaw, it's the New Orleans Handicap or bust.
PORTLAND, Ore. - What has gotten into Dash of Fame?
A 3-year-old Quarter Horse, he couldn't manage a maiden win in three starts at tiny Grants Pass last summer and then gained a reputation as a dangerous horse in his first attempt at Portland Meadows on Nov. 3, 2002, as rider Rowdy Luark suffered a possible career-ending injury when the horse flipped in the gate. Luark suffered a broken leg and there have been complications with the healing.
GROVE CITY, Ohio - Although racing resumed at Beulah Park on Tuesday after Saturday and Sunday programs were canceled because of a snowstorm that hit the central Ohio area over the weekend, the track could not make it through Wednesday's card.
Beulah Park had to cancel the last four races of its eight-race program Wednesday after the jockeys refused to ride, citing unsafe track conditions. Wednesday's card was a makeup day for this past Saturday's card.