INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Kona Gold will make history if he wins Saturday's $300,000 Triple Bend Breeders' Cup Handicap as the 126-pound topweight.
In the 50-year history of the sprint at Hollywood Park, no winner has carried more than 124 pounds. There have been four winners at 124 pounds, the most recent of which was Bedside Promise in 1987. Several horses failed to win at higher weights, including Imbros (second in 1954) and Revel (third in 1960) who each carried 128 pounds.
PLEASANTON, Calif. - Trainer William J. Morey Jr. had high hopes for Wild Celebration last year when the colt was a 2-year-old.
Wild Celebration can live up to those hopes Wednesday when he meets five rivals in the $40,000-added Pleasanton Stakes at the Alameda County Fair.
All six 3-year-olds in the 1 1/16-mile race will be looking for their initial stakes victory.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Wednesday's fifth race at Hollywood Park offers a preview of the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar on July 24.
The Oceanside is a restricted race for nonwinners of a first-place purse of $50,000 this year, which none of the 10 3-year-olds in Wednesday's $50,000 allowance race/optional claimer has accomplished.
No one will lose that eligibility with a win on Wednesday, but a win would enhance a horse's chance of being selected if the Oceanside is oversubscribed.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Perhaps Nasty Storm is like some of the basketball teams that one of her co-owners used to coach: much more productive during the second half of the season.
Hopefully for Nasty Storm, a 4-year-old filly owned in partnership by Denny Crum and others, the second half again will be better than the first. That is certainly the way things worked out last year for Nasty Storm: She reeled off consecutive victories in the Weekend Delight, Raven Run, and Churchill Downs Distaff, accounting for the majority of a 2001 bankroll of nearly $385,000.
CHICAGO - With yet another win on Sunday at Arlington, the question about Talknow is: How good is this horse?
In just eight months, Talknow has gone from a $5,000 claimer to an overnight stakes winner. In 10 starts since trainer Tom Tomillo filed one of 29 claims on Talknow last October - winning the shake and the right to purchase the horse - Talknow has won eight times. Sunday, he won the $42,000 Dr. Fager Handicap by a nose, beating Secret Romeo and Chindi, both of whom have won multiple stakes.
CHICAGO - Who says it takes money to make money? Without too much effort, an average Joe could have come up with the dough to buy Storm Witch or Playmera. Then they would be the one shooting for the winner's share of a $32,000 purse in Arlington's Wednesday feature, a second-level allowance sprint for fillies and mares.
Besides those two, six others were entered in the six-furlong race, the eighth of nine on a surprisingly rich mid-week program.
Since Patrol was switched to the turf this spring, nobody has been able to run with him either early or late.
That trend continued in Monday's $75,000 Nick Shuk Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park as Patrol cruised to a 3 1/2-length victory over four other 3-year-olds.
The only anxious moment for winning jockey Ramon Dominguez came at the start.
"He didn't break all that great," Dominguez said. "For a second I was a little concerned. But once my horse got himself together he took off with me. From then on it was just a matter of getting him to relax."
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Silver Nithi, rallying smartly from just off the pace, ended the Canadian Triple Tiara bid of Ginger Gold with a three-quarter length victory in Monday's $250,000 Bison City Stakes at Fort Erie.
Silver Nithi, who had finished second in the 1 1/8-mile Labatt Woodbine Oaks on June 8, turned the tables on Ginger Gold in the 1 1/16-race Bison City, the second leg of the series for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Will someone kindly remove the black cat hiding out in the Belmont Park racing office?
The cursed department, which has seen a number of top-quality horses miss stakes engagements because of various infirmities or other reasons, lost two more Grade 1 winners Monday when the connections of Buddha and England's Legend withdrew their horses from upcoming holiday weekend stakes races.
ELMONT, N.Y. - There are only six horses entered in Wednesday's featured eighth race at Belmont Park, but pick-six players chasing the $67,834 carryover may have a hard time throwing any of the sextet out.
Runners from several hot barns and a couple of intriguing horses from cold outfits make up the third-level allowance field contesting seven furlongs.