A four-day holiday weekend at Portland Meadows in Portland, Ore., kicks off Friday night with the Powder Puff Derby.
The six-furlong race for $4,000 claimers who have never won two races drew a field of six. Each entrant in the race for older fillies and mares will have a woman jockey.
Portland Meadows officials hoped to find eight entrants for the race so that all eight of the local women riders could compete.
Penn National Gaming Inc., the owner of Charles Town Races and Penn National racetracks and several casinos, had net income of $30.8 million in 2002, the company reported on Wednesday, or 82 cents a share.
Driven largely by slots operations at Charles Town and other casinos, net income was up 29 percent, from $23.8 million in 2001. Revenues in 2002 were $657 million, compared with $517 million in 2001.
Penn National's stock was down 28 cents on Wednesday, or 1.8 percent, to $15.50, on heavy trading. Stocks were generally down on Wednesday.
NEW ORLEANS - It's hard to send a good horse packing, but trainer Greg Foley spends his winters racing at Turfway Park. There are stakes there for his 3-year-old filly, Golden Marlin, but Foley thinks Golden Marlin has earned a chance in better races. So about two weeks ago, Foley, who is based at Churchill Downs, put Golden Marlin on a van bound for Fair Grounds.
ARCADIA, Calif. - You, the star 3-year-old filly in trainer Bobby Frankel's stable last year, was supposed to get a vacation after the La Brea Stakes on Dec. 28.
It's safe to say the filly had other ideas about her short-term future.
In late December, Frankel said he would give You a few months of light exercise at the start of 2003 to have her ready for the major races of the summer and fall. After Frankel noticed she continued to train well, he changed his plans.
ALBANY, Calif. - Jockeys Kevin Radke and Gary Baze are giving Golden Gate Fields fans a preview of the Emerald Downs jockey race this summer up in Washington.
Baze has been riding at Golden Gate for two-plus weeks and has seven winners from his first 35 mounts. Last weekend, he finished third on Surprise Halo in the Tanforan Handicap and third on Clover Situation in the Golden State Mile.
Baze, who suffered a badly broken left ankle last summer, began riding at Portland Meadows in December before coming to Golden Gate Fields.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Hear This, a standout maiden winner last year at Oaklawn Park, will try to become trainer Cole Norman's latest layoff winner at the meet when she makes her first start since May in an entry-level allowance for fillies and mares Friday.
The six-furlong race has drawn nine others, and is worth $31,000.
Norman has had a strong run with horses returning from layoffs this season at Oaklawn, where he leads the trainer standings with 11 wins from 42 starters heading into the races Wednesday.
Grand Island, Neb. - Fonner Park began its 50th season of racing on Saturday afternoon with a crowd of nearly 5,000 on hand. The fans saw 50-year-old jockey Perry Compton ride four winners on the card, a feat he has accomplished many times at this oval.
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - Racing Secretary Norm Amundson wrote an overnight handicap for 3-year-olds Sunday designed to serve as a stepping-stone to Sunland Park's marquee race, the $500,000 WinStar Derby on March 31, and trainer Steve Asmussen took full advantage of it.
Asmussen, who already had stakes picked out for two of his runners here last weekend, loaded Mr. Decatur on the van as well.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - At first, trainer Todd Pletcher intended to run Indy Dancer in Sunday's Risen Star Stakes at the Fair Grounds. But when another of his top 3-year-olds, Bham, was knocked out of Saturday's Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park because of a fever, Pletcher thought seriously about moving Indy Dancer to the Fountain of Youth.
DELRAY, Fla. - About 45 minutes northwest of Gulfstream Park, and only 10 minutes from the Palm Meadows training center, sits tranquil Palm Beach Downs, a training center with a mere six barns and a couple hundred horses, including the best undefeated 2-year-old colt of 2002 not named Vindication.
