INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Men's Exclusive can earn a place in Hollywood Park history with a win in Saturday's $100,000 Vernon Underwood Stakes.
Since the fall meeting began in 1981, only one horse has won three consecutive runnings of a major stakes - Flawlessly, who took the Matriarch Stakes from 1991-93. On Saturday, Men's Exclusive will try for an unprecedented third consecutive win in the six-furlong Underwood.
NEW ORLEANS - The drip, drip of light rain Thursday morning threatened to play havoc with the $60,000 Dr. A.B. Leggio Memorial Handicap at Fair Grounds Saturday. Scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, the Leggio's complexion would be altered significantly if it's moved from turf to dirt because of rain.
MIAMI - Despite carrying high weight of 121 pounds and breaking from the outside post, Babae is still the horse to beat when she faces nine rivals, including the Christophe Clement-trained pair of Strawberry Blonde and Volga, in Saturday's Grade 3 My Charmer Handicap at Calder.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Spirit One, an upset winner over allowance rivals on Nov. 24, will try to confirm her quality when she takes on five tough older fillies and mares in Saturday's feature at Portland Meadows, a six-furlong race for $10,000 claimers.
TORONTO - The 28th annual Sovereign Awards ceremony, honoring the best in Canadian Thoroughbred racing and breeding, will take place at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel here Saturday evening.
The leading candidates for the 2002 Canadian Horse of the Year title are Wake at Noon, a 5-year-old horse who is odds-on to be voted Canada's outstanding sprinter and also is a candidate for older male honors, and Added Edge, an undefeated 2-year-old colt who should get the nod in his category.
MIAMI - Band Is Passing returned a juicy $16 after rallying to an easy victory in the 2001 Tropical Turf Handicap. On Saturday, Band Is Passing will go off a lot closer to 7-5 than 7-1 when attempting to defend his title in the Grade 3 Tropical Turf, one of four stakes races on Saturday's Grand Slam I program.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - On a snowy day in the Northeast, it certainly wasn't difficult to dream about a getaway to sunny south Florida.
After he runs in Saturday's $100,000 Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct, Nothing Flat will head to Florida, where trainer Nick Zito will point him to the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park. The Sunshine Millions is a creation of Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment and is a series of races that pits Florida-breds versus California-breds at both Gulfstream and Santa Anita on Jan. 25.
NEW ORLEANS - Five mornings before the Fair Grounds meet began, Corey Lanerie lay on the stretch of the racetrack here. His mount in a training race had just suffered catastrophic injuries to her front legs, and with no warning Lanerie had been slammed to the ground.
"Every time you hit it's hard, but that one was the hardest," Lanerie said. "I got up, and I tried to make myself believe I was all right, but it didn't feel that way."
HOUSTON - Trainers who came within a head of winning the Kentucky Derby don't show up at Sam Houston Race Park very often.
But Gary Capuano, who saddles Cherokee's Boy in the Great State Challenge Juvenile here on Saturday, nearly won the Derby in 1997.
AUBURN, Wash. - Eric Nelson's bid to resurrect racing at Playfair Race Course in Spokane hit a roadblock Wednesday when the Washington State Horse Racing Commission refused to grant him racing dates for next year.
The commission refused to grant Nelson's request for a 40-day meeting next year because it deemed a contract between Nelson and the track's horsemen to be invalid.