INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Fairplex Park will host training races on Jan. 20, hoping to revive a long dormant method of readying horses for racing at Southern California tracks.
The training races are scheduled for about four furlongs, a distance that Fairplex Park offered only occasionally during its September fair meeting.
The races will be open to 3-year-olds and up and could become a regular feature if demand is high enough, track officials said.
ALBANY, Calif. - Distance and the likelihood of an off track will test seven 2-year-olds competing in Saturday's $75,000-added Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.
But the primary obstacles for most of the field are D's Bertrando, the likely odds-on choice, and Buddy Gil, who won the six-furlong Golden Bear Stakes on a dull track and who should receive heavy support as well.
ALBANY, Calif. - Owner Dennis Narlinger admits he is thinking of the classics for D's Bertrando next year. Donnie McFadden, the breeder and co-owner of Buddy Gil, says he was only hoping for a nice horse, and is thrilled by his horse's progress.
The matchup between these two rising 2-year-olds in Saturday's $75,000 Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate Fields has piqued the interest of northern California racing fans.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - A Ransom is less than 22 seconds from joining one of Quarter Horse racing's most elite groups.
On Saturday night at Los Alamitos, the 6-year-old A Ransom will attempt to become the fifth horse to win at least two runnings of the Champion of Champions, a 440-yard stakes for older Quarter Horses.
A Ransom won the race in 2000. Those who have won the Champion of Champions more than once are Dash for Cash (1976-77), Refrigerator (1992-94), SLM Big Daddy (1997-98), and Tailor Fit (1999, 2001).
Gal on the Go didn't go to Fair Grounds after the Churchill Downs fall meet, as she did in 2001. Instead, she will start as the likely favorite in Saturday's $50,000 My Charmer Stakes at Turfway Park.
The decision by trainer Vickie Foley makes sense. Winless in 10 starts this season, Gal on the Go finds herself with a good opportunity to break her losing streak. Although she faces 11 rivals in the 1 1/16-mile My Charmer, most are money allowance horses and minor stakes runners.
Invader, the odds-on favorite disqualified from first in last month's Showtime Deb Stakes at Hawthorne, seeks redemption in Saturday's $100,000 Illinois Breeders Debutante. The Debutante is a 1 1/16-mile stakes race for 2-year-old Illinois-bred fillies at Hawthorne.
The Debutante looks a lot like the Showtime Deb as far as the field is concerned. Seven fillies, including five of the top six finishers in the Showtime Deb, were entered in the Debutante.
Jerry Bailey doesn't ride in Maryland very often. Bailey hasn't accepted a mount at Laurel Park in more than a year.
Bailey last appeared in Maryland during Preakness week, when he rode Chamrousse to victory in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. His last ride at Laurel produced a win for Delaware Township in the 2001 De Francis Memorial Dash.
So that Bailey is coming to Laurel for Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Anne Arundel Stakes is a pretty good endorsement for the 3-year-old filly he will ride, To the Queen.
PHOENIX, Ariz. - The only time R. Baggio set foot on the Turf Paradise turf course he won easily.
Surely owner Frank Lewkowitz and trainer Eric Kruljac are hoping for a little deja vu with the 4-year-old R. Baggio in Saturday's $50,000 Paradise Mile Handicap, a one-mile turf race that attracted eight runners.
In the Paradise Valley Handicap on turf here 13 months ago, R. Baggio stalked the pace and blasted home to win by four lengths. Left in second place was the very fast and tough Resolve.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Tampa Bay Downs opens its gates Saturday for its 77th season of Thoroughbred racing. With a working contract between management and horsemen in place, and over 1,100 horses already on the grounds and 1,400 expected by the first of the year, fans shouldn't have to worry about the boycotts of the entry box by trainers and the small fields of last season.
MIAMI - Trust N Luck's only two victories have come after the speedy 2-year-old was able to shake loose on the lead. So there is little doubt what trainer Ralph Ziadie's strategy will be when he stretches Trust N Luck back out around two turns for Saturday's $100,000 What a Pleasure Stakes at Calder.
"If he gets the lead I don't think they'll beat him," Ziadie said shortly before a field of seven 2-year-old colts was drawn for the What a Pleasure.