OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Martha's Music shoots for her fifth straight win in Monday's $75,000-added Rare Treat Handicap at Aqueduct, although there could be something standing in her way, namely the weather.
The forecast in the Northeast was for several inches of snow, beginning Sunday evening and continuing on Monday.
Even if the Big A is open for the special Presidents Day holiday card, Martha's Music still has to get there from her Philadelphia Park barn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Explosive Beauty was such an overwhelming winner last month in the $50,000 Dixie Belle on opening day at Oaklawn Park, the obvious question has to be asked: Can she duplicate the effort when she starts Monday in the track's $50,000 Martha Washington?
"I hope she does," said Cole Norman, who trains Explosive Beauty. "Off a huge race like that you're always concerned about a bounce, [but] she seems to have come out of the race just fine, and had a good work this week.
ALBANY, Calif. - When you win 400 races a year, winning five in one day becomes, well, almost routine.
That's how Russell Baze started the holiday weekend with five victories on Friday at Golden Gate Fields. He then won the first four races on Saturday's program.
Baze opened Friday's card with a routine wire-to-wire victory aboard Condellone in a 5 1/2-furlong race for $6,250 claimers. Condellone had not won since her debut on July 12, 2001, but was dropping from a $16,000 claimer at Santa Anita.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Lion Tamer paid quick dividends for new owner Michael Tabor on Saturday, blowing away a decent field of 3-year-olds by six lengths in the Grade 2, $150,000 at Gulfstream Park.
Lion Tamer, a son of Will's Way, was making his first start for Tabor, who purchased him from John Fort's Peachtree Stable for a rumored $1.5 million following his last start. Saturday's victory was Lion Tamer's third straight following a debut loss.
"You'd have to be pleased with it, wouldn't you?" Tabor said. "He galloped out well."
NEW ORLEANS - Belle of Perintown minded her manners in the starting gate this time, but she treated her opponents in the Silverbulletday Stakes quite rudely. Belle of Perintown ($22.40) left the opposition in the dust with a quick move turning for home, running alone through the stretch for an 8 1/4-length win in the Grade 2, $150,000 at Fair Grounds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Five weeks ago, trainer John Servis came to Aqueduct and won the Grade 3 Affectionately for the second year in a row with Zonk. Servis, who is based at Philadelphia Park, shipped another runner to New York on Saturday to win the $81,825 Dearly Precious Stakes with Ladyecho.
Ladyecho closed strongly in the final sixteenth of the six-furlong Dearly Precious to wear down the loose-on-the-lead pacesetter, Lizzy Cool, and win by a length. Lizzy Cool finished 4 1/4 lengths in front of Reign of Tara in third.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Red n'Gold, who has run some of her biggest races at Oaklawn Park, successfully defended her title in the track's $50,000 Pippin when she drove to a half-length win over Reason to Talk before a crowd of 20,603.
See How She Runs, who was the favorite, finished seventh.
Red n'Gold ($11.80) raced about two lengths off pacesetter Eagle Lake, who ran the opening six furlongs of the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares in 1:14.13. Red n'Gold overtook Eagle Lake in the stretch, and went on to cover the distance over a track rated muddy in 1:48.10.
ALBANY, Calif. - Lucky Sabre ($3) held off a stubborn Tale of a Dream to win the $58,950 Vallejo Stakes by a neck at Golden Gate Fields.
Jockey Russell Baze began urging Lucky Sabre approaching the second turn and she took the lead and held on after vigorous left-handed whipping down the lane The winning time was 1:36.28.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Lido Palace, who would have been favored in next Saturday's Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream, will not make the cross-country trip from California after coming down with a temperature, trainer Bobby Frankel said.
"He got sick,'' Frankel said Saturday from California. "He had a 102 temperature yesterday; his white blood count was high.''
ARCADIA, Calif. - This much is certain about jockey Jerry Bailey's schedule in early March: He will travel to Santa Anita from Florida on March 1 for the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap and return a week later to ride Composure in the Santa Anita Oaks.
Whether Bailey will ride Congaree or Medaglia d'Oro in the Big Cap remains to be seen.
Trainer Bob Baffert said Saturday that Congaree would be pointed to the meeting's richest race. Baffert said Bailey would have the ride.
Bailey's agent, Ron Anderson, said "We have not made a final decision."
