PORTLAND, Ore. - Tiffa looks like the one to beat in Friday's featured race at Portland Meadows, a one-mile allowance for fillies and mares that has drawn a field of six.
Tiffa, a 5-year-old daughter of Alybenbo trained by Mike Totland, won the mile Oregon Hers Stakes here as a 3-year-old but hasn't been able to find the winner's circle in eight subsequent starts.
A handful of new stables with proven records should add depth to Oaklawn Park's racing program this season. Oaklawn will pay out record purses of $235,000 to $240,000 a day when its meet opens Jan. 24.
Trainer John Veitch will be back in Hot Springs, Ark., for the first time in more than two decades. The last time Veitch raced at Oaklawn was 1979, when he won the Fantasy with eventual 3-year-old champion filly Davona Dale.
That same year, the Veitch-trained Alydar finished second, beaten a nose by San Juan Hill, in the Oaklawn Handicap.
NEW ORLEANS - Lone Star Sky, the 3-year-old colt who won the Cradle Stakes last summer, had his first breeze of the season this week at Fair Grounds. Lone Star Sky hasn't raced since running poorly in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and he returned to the racetrack only a couple weeks ago, but trainer Tom Amoss still isn't ruling out a comeback in the Jan. 25 Lecomte Stakes.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Gary Baze had been sidelined for more than six months with a badly broken ankle before launching his comeback aboard Questionable Road in Saturday's OTBA Stallion Stakes at six furlongs at Portland Meadows. But Baze, 47, showed no signs of rust.
In typical fashion, Baze sat chilly on Questionable Road while three rivals dueled through a half-mile in 46.16 seconds, then he and Questionable Road came on relentlessly to prevail by a half-length in 1:14.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Ralph Ziadie has trained horses for 47 years, both in the United States and his native Jamaica. He has won three Grade 1 races with Sir Bear, won the Jamaica Derby - his country's most important race - with Royal Crest, and took Tahkodha Hills to the Belmont Stakes.
Despite those accomplishments, Ziadie has yet to achieve the goal he set for himself in 1979 when he first took out his U.S. trainer's license - to run a horse in, and perhaps win, the Kentucky Derby.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It didn't take apprentice Shannon Uske long to win the first race of her career, just one mount and a minute and five seconds - the time it took Lilah to run 5 1/2 furlongs.
It may not take Uske much longer to win her second race, either, perhaps all of about one minute and 11 seconds, or the time it should take her second career mount, Lilah again, to run six furlongs in Thursday's $36,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - If not for a good-looking 3-year-old colt named Senor Swinger, Mickey Goldfine wouldn't even be in south Florida this winter.
But once again Goldfine is where he almost always has been in January, overseeing a string of horses in Barn 16 at Gulfstream Park. For many years, Goldfine served as the right-hand man to his father, Lou, who slipped into retirement in recent years without making a big deal about it.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - In the next five weeks, Philadelphia Park-based trainer John Servis figures to have a major impact in stakes action at Aqueduct.
Servis plans to get started on Saturday when he ships in Zonk, who will likely be favored to defend her Grade 3 Affectionately Handicap title from a year ago. Servis has depth in the filly and mare handicap division with the likes of Martha's Music and Pupil, who were also nominated to the Affectionately but who may be aimed at the Rare Treat Handicap here on Feb. 17 instead.
ARCADIA, Calif. - After only one start, Atswhatimtalknbout has become the most talked about 3-year-old in Southern California. The A.P. Indy colt stormed from last to first on Saturday, winning a six-furlong maiden race by a half-length in 1:10.30 and earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 86.
On Tuesday, only three days after his electrifying debut, Atswhatimtalknbout was ready for more at trainer Ron Ellis's barn.
