ARCADIA, Calif. - Jerry Bailey may be on a collision course with a tough decision after a lucrative weekend of stakes wins at Santa Anita.
Bailey, based in Florida at this time of year, won the two biggest races on the national calendar - Saturday's $400,000 Strub Stakes with Medaglia d'Oro and Sunday's $250,000 San Antonio Handicap with Congaree.
Both are prospects for the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 1 or the $6 million Dubai World Cup in the Middle East on March 29.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Harlan's Holiday stamped himself one of the favorites for the Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 22 after defeating a strong group of allowance rivals in his 2003 debut here Sunday.
"It looks like he's back to his old self," trainer Todd Pletcher said just moments after Harlan's Holiday crossed the wire 1 3/4 lengths in front of Bonus Pack in Sunday's fourth race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Gary Contessa, the leading trainer at Aqueduct's inner-track meet, scratched all eight of his horses entered over the weekend after being informed by the stewards that one of his horses had tested positive for a banned substance.
The investigation is so much in the preliminary stages that the stewards couldn't tell Contessa which horse's test came back positive. Contessa said he was only told that a preliminary test performed on one of his horses turned up positive for a banned substance.
Mountaineer Park in West Virginia canceled live racing indefinitely Monday after the local horsemen's group filed a lawsuit accusing the track of sending its racing signal out of state illegally.
In a statement, Mountaineer said that it was canceling racing "until further notice while it attempts to clarify issues surroundings its contracts" with the Mountaineer Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents horsemen at the track.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Last summer, just as she was starting to make strides toward becoming a consistent, graded stakes runner, Cozy Island went to the sidelines with an injury. Given plenty of time to heal, the 5-year-old mare will make her first start in more than seven months in Wednesday's featured ninth race at Gulfstream Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Mark Glatt will have the busiest day of his career on Wednesday at Santa Anita when he has runners in six of the eight races.
"I think that's a personal high," Glatt said.
Glatt, 30, has starters in all but the second and sixth races, and has several contenders throughout the day. His runners range from claiming sprinters to a contender in the day's richest race, a $56,000 allowance/optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - New York-based trainer Robert Klesaris was eager to see how his horses would fit in his first season at Oaklawn Park. The answer came quickly. Klesaris won three races from seven starters on opening weekend, and also had four runners claimed out of his 12-horse stable.
The fast start places Klesaris second in the standings, behind two-time defending leading trainer Cole Norman, who was 5-for-19 over the three-day opening weekend at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Can the late-running Chindi be as productive this year as he was last season when he won three races as an 8-year-old? It's very possible. The gelding is working unusually strongly for his 9-year-old debut, which is scheduled for Wednesday at Oaklawn Park.
Chindi will meet seven others in a $60,000 optional claiming race at six furlongs, including fellow stakes winners Cowboy Stuff and That Tat. None were entered for the claiming price, and the purse is $37,000.
ALBANY, Calif. - Will the third time be a charm as trainer Lonnie Arterburn tries to get Classic La back to the races?
Classic La is one of six 4-year-olds entered in Wednesday's Golden Gate Fields feature, a six-furlong $25,000 claimer.
Classic La won his debut last Feb. 9, beating Danzhound, who will be one of his rivals Wednesday. He was second in his next start in a $32,000 starter allowance race but was pulled up quickly in his third start on April 24.
"He had an injury and had to be freshened," Arterburn said.
Cypress Cove made a huge sweeping move in the final turn and went on to beat 37-1 longshot Zarro by 2 1/4 lengths in the $80,000 .
Ridden by Shane Seller, Cypress Cove ($4.40), part of an entry owned by Keith Plaisance, rallied from eighth in a field of 12 horses.
Cypress Cove, a Kentucky-bred by West by West, now has won 2 of 5 career starts for trainer Edward Johnston. He finished the one-mile distance in 1:40.62.
