ALBANY, Calif. - Many apprentice riders get the first victory of their career by racing wide and avoiding all possible problems.
Not Marcia Stortz.
Stortz, 25, rode her first winner at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday, hugging the rail with Gifted Athlete ($12.20) in a six-furlong $3,200 claimer.
Stortz said Gifted Athlete's trainer, Reina Gonzalez, told her to stay on the rail a little off the pace, and to make her move in the stretch.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Bay Meadows will run 16 stakes races, including six worth at least $100,000, at its upcoming spring meet, April 2 through June 15.
That is five fewer stakes than at last year's spring meet, but only one of the five races was eliminated. Two will instead be run during the current Golden Gate Fields meet, and two stakes races for 2-year-olds were moved to the fall.
The meet's premier race will be the Grade 2 San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile. The $200,000 turf race at will be held April 26.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Following a disappointing one-year stint as a Grade 1 race, Woodbine's Niagara Breeders' Cup Handicap has been bumped back to Grade 2 status for its 2003 running.
The Niagara, a $300,000 turf race for 3-year-olds and upward, was the only race to undergo a change of grading on this year's schedule of graded stakes.
The complete list, released Tuesday by the Jockey Club of Canada's Canadian Graded Stakes Committee, comprises 40 races worth a total of $7.845 million.
Jockeys Seth Martinez, Wilson Dieguez and O. A. Martinez, sustained injuries in a three-horse spill, Monday at Turf Paradise.
Seth Martinez, 24, the meet's leading rider, suffered an apparent broken collarbone. Dieguez, 29, sustained a contusion to the head. Both riders were taken to John C. Lincoln Hospital. O.A. Martinez, 38, suffered a broken nose and returned to the jocks' room.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A few years ago, the New Zealand import Happyanunoit was one of the top turf females in trainer Bobby Frankel's stable before her retirement in the summer of 2001.
Frankel may have found a suitable replacement from New Zealand in Final Destination.
On Monday at Santa Anita, the 5-year-old Final Destination won her first stakes in the United States in the $150,000 over a mile on turf.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Both Trust N Luck and Badge of Silver, who scored overpowering victories in the weekend's key 3-year-old stakes, came out of their races in good order and established themselves as the horses to beat in the next round of Kentucky Derby preps in March.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Monday's card at Aqueduct was canceled because of a severe blizzard, and the $75,000-added Rare Treat Handicap was moved to Wednesday.
Martha's Music, who is based at Philadelphia Park and shooting for her fifth straight win, is the one to beat. Owned by Leonard Green's D J Stable, Martha's Music is the 119-pound highweight.
On Monday, Martha's Music's trainer, John Servis, was shoveling snow after Philadelphia was hit with two feet over the weekend. He said he was confident Martha's Music would be on a van early Wednesday for the Rare Treat.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The prospective starting lineup for Saturday's $500,000 Donn Handicap swelled to as many as 11 horses on Monday, in large part because of the defection of Lido Palace, who was withdrawn from consideration for the race on Saturday by trainer Bobby Frankel.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - As a half-brother to champion turf mare Perfect Sting, El General faced high expectations when he made it to the grass. He has failed to meet those expectations, and his connections took the most drastic of measures to try and turn his career around.
When El General runs in Wednesday's featured second-level allowance race at Gulfstream Park, he will do so as a gelding for the first time. El General, owned by Stronach Stable and trained by Malcolm Pierce, has won only two of his first 10 starts and should offer value in a full and contentious field.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Explosive Beauty won her second straight stakes race Monday when she powered to a 5 3/4-length win over Hannah's Royalrock in the $50,000 at Oaklawn Park.
It was another 1 1/4 lengths back to Adopted Daughter in third.
Explosive Beauty ($4.20) sat in fourth early behind Simply Siber, who ran the opening quarter of the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies in 21.82 seconds. Explosive Beauty began her bid on the turn, took the lead from Hannah's Royalrock near the quarter pole, and went on to cover the distance over a good track in 1:11.20.
