ARCADIA, Calif. - The paradoxes continue Sunday, closing day of the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita. You've got questions? We've got . . . more questions.
Is a half-year rest for a racehorse too short? Or too long? The dilemma applies in both stakes Sunday. Tout Charmant's seven-month break makes her vulnerable in the Grade 2 Las Palmas Handicap, but El Cielo's nine-month rest is irrelevant in the Grade 3 Morvich Handicap. El Cielo is chalk, Tout Charmant is not.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone ended her 3 1/2-year retirement with a fourth-place finish in the fifth race Friday at Santa Anita.
Riding in a competitive race for the first time since April 1999, Krone rode first-time starter Justly Royal in a maiden race on the hillside turf course.
Justly Royal was beaten 2 1/4 lengths by Silky Summer ($27.20), but may have finished closer with a better stretch run. At the back of the field early, Justly Royal made up ground through the final quarter-mile but was in tight quarters in the final 50 yards.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Eternal Secrecy looks like the choice over eight other older horses in Sunday's feature race, a $25,000 claiming race at 1 1/16 miles that goes as the ninth of 12 races at Hastings Park.
Eternal Secrecy has won his last two starts and in his most recent outing, a two-length win over Jazzy Yacht in a $20,000 claiming race, he ran what could be considered the best race of his career. While his 88 Beyer Figure doesn't equal his career high, it was the way he earned it that suggests he's a better horse now.
PORTLAND, Ore. - The 10 fastest qualifiers from two trial heats at Portland Meadows on Oct. 20 will compete for a purse of $31,852 in Sunday's Evergreen Futurity for 2-year-old Quarter Horses at 400 yards.
The trials were won by Phils Dash Ta Fame and Jrs Four by Four in the nearly identical times of 20.49 and 20.55, respectively, but the manner in which they registered those clockings differed markedly.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Critical Eye needs $20,289 to become a millionaire. If she finishes first or second in Sunday's $100,000-added Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Aqueduct she will reach that milestone.
Critical Eye, who will be retired at the end of the year, is among eight fillies and mares entered in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race.
Graded stakes winner Mystic Lady, one of three horses in the race trained by Mark Hennig, is the 119-pound highweight.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - They all have passed their initial tests. Now the waters get deeper Sunday at Churchill Downs, where a promising group of 2-year-olds will clash in the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes.
Under more favorable circumstances, Posse, a Silver Deputy colt who wowed Kentucky racing fans earlier this year, would be a solid choice in the $100,000 Iroquois, a one-mile race run around one turn. But Posse has not raced in more than three months, and with so many of his opponents having matured and improved during that time, the race suddenly takes on a more competitive look.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Great things are expected of Century City, who will make his U.S. debut in Sunday's Grade 3, $100,000 Bay Meadows Derby. Perhaps best known for his strong second-place finish to Rock of Gibraltar in the Irish 2000 Guineas in May, Century City won both the Group 3 Tetrach Stakes and Group 2 Goffs International in Ireland earlier this year.
A $2.2 million yearling purchase, Century City was resold by Michael Tabor and Susan Magnier this summer to Tom Nichols and John Greely IV, for whom he won the Goffs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Quiet Resolve, Canada's Horse of the Year in 2000 and a Grade 1 winner of $2.3 million, was in guarded condition at the University of Guelph's veterinary clinic Friday after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured hind ankle.
Trainer Mark Frostad said Quiet Resolve suffered the career-ending injury when he pulled up from a routine gallop at Woodbine on Thursday morning.
Quiet Resolve, a 7-year-old gelding owned and bred by Sam-Son Farm, had been scheduled to make his final start of the season here in Sunday's Labeeb Stakes.
Great Lakes Downs, located in Muskegon, Mich., has been granted a 118-day meet from April 26 through Oct. 28 in 2003, almost exactly the same dates it raced this year. Great Lakes, Michigan's only all-Thoroughbred track, is owned by Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment Corp.
An investment group headed by Stronach's son, Andy Stronach, withdrew its request for 2003 racing dates in Michigan. The group, known as EQTAH, had submitted a racetrack license application to the Michigan Office of Racing Commissioner but does not own a facility in the state.
Remington Park, another Magna Entertainment track, has asked the Oklahoma Racing Commission to reconsider the dates it was awarded for 2003. Remington wants to add Thoroughbred racing to its 20-day mixed meet and has proposed adding three dates to that season for a 23-date meet in August and September, as well as postponing the start of its 50-day Thoroughbred meet a week to Sept. 11.
