ARCADIA, Calif. - An insurance program that would reduce workers' compensation rates paid by California trainers will not go into effect by Friday, the date that racing officials had hoped it would be implemented.
Instead, they are hoping that the program can be in place by Nov. 15, which could lead to widespread savings for trainers who have paid higher rates for the compulsory insurance this year.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Seven evenly matched 3- and 4-year old fillies will seek a second career victory in Friday's allowance feature at Portland Meadows, a six-furlong sprint with a purse of $4,200.
The field includes two 4-year-olds, and both figure to attract significant support. One is Kiltee, who won her lone start in February by six lengths. The other, Dream Weaver, comes in off a creditable second under the same conditions on Oct. 19.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The finale on Friday's 10-race card at Woodbine could be a foregone conclusion if the track comes up sloppy.
The speedy Tax Deferred absolutely adores a wet track and will be hard to catch in the first-level allowance if it rains.
The 1 1/8-mile distance of the race is seemingly beyond his optimum capabilities, however, and he may be hard-pressed to stay the trip on a fast track.
Tino Attard trains Tax Deferred, who has won 6 of 12 starts this year in a campaign that began with an authoritative score Jan. 7 at Gulfstream.
SALEM, N.H. - The owners of Rockingham Park have announced an agreement with a Massachusetts development company to explore other uses of the track's property and the possibility of discontinuing racing after 2004.
Rockingham Venture Inc. and Eastern Development, LLC - a group that specializes in office and retail development - will look at new options for the land but have promised to continue racing at the track for two more seasons.
Veteran jockey Shane Sellers posted his first victory in more than a year when he rode heavily favored Uncommon Queen ($3.40) to win the sixth race by nine lengths Wednesday at Churchill Downs. Sellers, who has won more than 3,700 races, returned to riding Oct. 23 at Keeneland after having been away nearly a year after a serious knee injury in Dec. 2000 in a post parade accident at the Fair Grounds. Sellers attempted and abandoned a brief comeback at the 2001 Arlington Park summer meet.
MIAMI - Ivanavinalot, a late scratch out of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, will head to owner Gil Campbell's Stonehedge Farm in Ocala later this week for a month of rest and relaxation.
Kathleen O'Connell, trainer of Ivanavinalot, explained the chain of events that led to her decision to keep Ivanavinalot, the only south Florida-based entrant in the 2002 Breeders' Cup, home last weekend.
"She left some feed in her tub on Wednesday night, and she had never missed an oat before," said O'Connell. "Not even after her races.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Added Edge could have been entered in last week's Breeders' Cup Juvenile and nobody could have said he didn't belong. But on the day the Juvenile was being run at Arlington Park, Added Edge was on a van from Woodbine to Aqueduct, where he will be among the favorites for this Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Nashua Stakes.
STICKNEY, Ill. - For the first time in many months, Noel Hickey was able to keep a watchful eye on his shed row this week at Hawthorne. Wednesday, Hickey stood in front of his barn office, one part of his mind focused on an interview, but a watchful eye still on his animals.
In midsentence, Hickey paused to ask a groom to cut down a young gray horse's feed. "He's getting thick through the kidneys," Hickey said.
"Did that horse run off with you?" Hickey asked a few minutes later, as an exercise rider returned from the racetrack. "He's blowing too much."
Sam Houston Race Park hopes to draw a crowd of more than 15,000 to the inaugural NTRA Great State Challenge on Dec. 7, and is working diligently to make the kind of improvements needed to comfortably host patrons during the six-race program, which highlights the 80-day meet that opens Friday.
"I think the first objective we have is to set the standard for years to come," said Bob Bork, president of Sam Houston in Houston, Texas.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When part of a two-horse entry is a late scratch, horseplayers sometimes find themselves holding a losing ticket on a horse they might not have wanted to bet on.
For many, that is what transpired Tuesday in the third race at Churchill Downs, when Annual Dues, probably the better half of a Dale Romans-trained entry, was scratched at the gate after injuring herself. The remaining half of the entry, Chap Up, proceeded to finish last in a field of six as the 9-10 favorite.