OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The year is about to end, but trainer Bob Barbara is just getting started.
Through the first three weeks of Aqueduct's inner-track meet, Barbara has five wins and two seconds from nine starts. His five wins equal the most he's had for any single New York Racing Association meet this year. During the 2001-02 inner-track meet, Barbara was just 3 for 43.
Streakin Sin Tacha, the eighth-place finisher in the Grade 1, $500,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 14, will try to rebound Saturday in the Grade 1, $350,000 The Championship at Sunland Park.
The 400-yard Championship at Sunland Park brings together older horses who have won or placed in graded stakes this year.
Before his defeat in the Champion of Champions, Streakin Sin Tacha raced to consecutive wins in the Grade 1 MBNA America Texas Challenge Championship, the Grade 2 Sam Houston Classic, and the Grade 1 MBNA America Challenge Championship.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Aqueduct canceled its Thursday card after jockeys told management the inner track was unsafe. It was the third cancellation this month.
The $100,000 Gravesend Handicap, originally carded for Thursday, will be re-drawn and run on Sunday as part of a 10-race card. Aqueduct, which has not run since last Saturday, will also conduct 10 races this Saturday and, most likely, on New Year's Day, too.
MIAMI - South Florida's winter racing season gets off to a hot start, only not at Gulfstream Park, as one might expect, but across town at Calder with Saturday's Grand Slam II program. The 12-race card features four stakes, three of which are graded, including the $200,000 W.L. McKnight Handicap and its filly counterpart, the $200,000 La Prevoyante Handicap.
NEW ORLEANS - So Old Money isn't in the same league as Astra, or Golden Apples, or Starine. But that doesn't mean she's not a legitimate turf stakes horse, and after delivering an impressive performance in a prep race a month ago, Old Money can win her first North American stakes here Friday in the Furl Sail Handicap.
For the last several seasons the quality of the Furl Sail fields was in line with its $75,000 purse, but this year the field is better: Quick Tip, Histoire Sainte, Lady of Peace, and Salty Farma give the race surprising depth.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The owners of Humorous Lady have spent more than $20 million this year acquiring future broodmare prospects, but pedigree sits backseat to performance Friday at Santa Anita. The question is: Can Humorous Lady stay seven furlongs in the $125,000 California Breeders' Champion Stakes?
The likely answer is yes, largely due to a drop in class. Humorous Lady set the pace and tired to eighth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Oct. 26.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The conditions of Friday's $56,000 allowance feature for older fillies and mares at Aqueduct figured to attract some horse trying to make up for lost time. Instead, the seven horses entered in the money allowance race are just trying to make up for a lot of losses.
Royal Fact, who is only 1 for 7 this year, should go off a solid favorite, but it will be hard to bet on or against her.
Outta Here, the Southern California-based colt who won the inaugural $500,000 Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs on Saturday night, will get a month off before his connections map out a 3-year-old campaign for the colt. The $2 million UAE Derby in Dubai in March could be on the schedule.
"I don't know yet where we're going with him," said Bill Currin, who co-owns and trains Outta Here. "I've got to get him home first."
NEW ORLEANS - The six horses entered to race against Witt Ante in the Louisiana Futurity on Friday at Fair Grounds range from first-time starters to maiden winners. None has won a stakes, and those that have seasoning comparable to Witt Ante's aren't nearly as good as he is. Witt Ante already has a stakes win, and he just finished second here Dec. 14 in the $100,000 Champions Day Juvenile.
ALBANY, Calif. - Six fillies who seem more at home on turf than dirt run in Friday's feature at Golden Gate Fields, a $40,000 starter allowance at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
The fillies all made their last starts on the turf course, which has not been used since Dec. 12 because of rains.