ELMONT, N.Y. - Multiple Choice tops a field of tough sprinters in Thursday's allowance feature at Belmont Park.
The 6 1/2-furlong race, which offers a $54,000 purse, drew seven older males.
Multiple Choice, who will be ridden by Javier Castellano, is the one to beat in this competitive field. Trained by Jimmy Jerkens, the 4-year-old hasn't competed since winning a similar race at Aqueduct on April 11.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After losses by a head and a neck, Eric Da Bomb deserves a break. He will get one Thursday in the race 7 feature at Hollywood Park. Seven entered the one-other-than, 1 1/16-mile allowance, and the expected scratch of front-runner Big Apple softens the pace scenario and favors a horse with tactical speed such as Eric Da Bomb.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The old saying that "one man's trash is another man's treasure" seems applicable to flea markets, yard sales, and, yes, even claiming races.
Only six days before the eighth-race co-feature will be run Thursday at Churchill Downs, trainer Neil Howard put Bubba's Colors on the proverbial racetrack trash heap. Howard had grown weary of seeing Bubba's Colors, a 4-year-old by A.P. Indy out of Two Altazano, continually squander his wonderful pedigree, so he ran the colt in a never-won-two claimer for $25,000.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - The just-concluded Bay Meadows spring meeting brought an increase in overall handle, but a dip in ontrack handle and attendance. And the old standbys, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and jockey Russell Baze, dominated the standings again.
The track's average daily handle rose 8 percent to $4,288,918, thanks to a 21 percent rise in out-of-state wagering, to $1,914,770. Average daily handle rose 1 percent at northern California simulcast facilities, to $1,525,770. Ontrack handle decreased by 4 percent, to $848,428.
ELMONT, N.Y. - With five weeks remaining in the Belmont meet, there is a five-way tussle for leading rider honors as a quintet of jockeys are within four wins of each other. The battle contains the usual suspects - Jerry Bailey, John Velazquez, Jorge Chavez, and Edgar Prado - and one surprising name: Jose Santos.
Through Sunday, Santos had ridden 24 winners, tying him for third place with Chavez, who won three races Sunday while Santos was out of town. That duo is three wins behind Bailey and Velazquez, who are tied with 27 wins apiece. Prado has 23.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem took his first spin around a California racetrack on Tuesday, galloping 1 3/8 miles at Santa Anita. No plans have been made for the lean-framed colt, according to trainer Bob Baffert.
"We're just going to play it by ear, see how's he's doing," Baffert said. "He's pretty light."
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Corey Lanerie can't lose over the next few days. And he might win big.
Lanerie has been invited to test his riding skills on Friday night against some of the best in the business in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association All-Star Jockey Championship at Lone Star Park. On Thursday, Lanerie, who plays 18 holes of golf four times a week, gets to compete in a charity tournament that will benefit the Disabled Jockeys' Endowment.
CHICAGO - As quickly as these racehorses impress you, they depress you. And the ones that seem to show the most talent are the ones that seem most susceptible to injury.
Last spring, trainer Tony Granitz thought he might have something in Misty Gina, a filly he trains for Wheeler Farm. She was a bang-up second in her career debut at Sportsman's in April 2001, then won her maiden at Hawthorne by more than two lengths over Curious Conundrum, who went on to win a stakes last summer.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When Ford Every Stream surfaced with an impressive victory in a prep for the Marine Stakes at Woodbine on May 3, many felt they had just been introduced to Sam-Son Farm's third straight Queen's Plate winner.
But some doubts have arisen in the interim as Ford Every Stream finished third as the odds-on choice in the May 18 Marine and his trainer, Mark Frostad, said the colt would bypass the 1 1/8-mile Plate Trial here June 1 and head straight to Sunday's $1 million Plate.