PHOENIX - It's called the Hasta La Vista for a reason. The Turf Paradise season is coming to a close and, as is customary, the $50,000 Hasta La Vista Handicap at 1 7/8 miles on turf Sunday brings down the curtain on the long live racing season, which began in late September.
The Hasta La Vista is always interesting. Horses don't often get a chance to race the 1 7/8-mile distance in the United States, and this year's race has lured a field of 12.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Canterbury Park's 16-week meeting dictates that Minnesota-bred runners must be trained to the minute or risk waiting until next year to compete for statebred black type.
One horse who hasn't missed a beat in four years is Nidari, who headlines Sunday's $35,000 Lady Slipper Stakes for Minnesota-bred fillies and mares.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. - The horse and the hot dog will be celebrated by as many as 30,000 fans at Suffolk Downs as the Hot dog Safari comes to the track for the fourth straight year.
Local sports radio personality Eddie Andelman, who has been a media fixture in Boston for 30 years and a horse racing fan, began what would become the Safari in 1990 when callers to his talk show claime to make the best hot dogs. A bus trip with 200 listeners to sample different frankfurters and sausages evolved into a day-long fair.
In the Smart Halo Stakes at Pimlico on April 27, Joseph Aquilino wanted his speedy filly Vesta to practice rating and maybe get a piece of a stakes placing. She did, coming from just off the lead on the turn to win going away by six lengths in a smart final time of 1:10 1/5.
BALTIMORE - The trainers who will try to beat Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem in the 127th Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course have a message for trainer Bob Baffert: Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.
The questions remain, however, whether these trainers are fooling themselves into believing the Preakness will be run differently than the Derby, and whether War Emblem needs the lead to win.
BALTIMORE - Connections of six of the 13 horses in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday have told Maryland racing officials that they intend to run on adjunct bleeder medications, three drugs that are allowed to be administered with Lasix four hours before a race to treat bleeding. The horses are U S S Tinosa, Magic Weisner, Medaglia d'Oro, Harlan's Holiday, Easyfromthegitgo, and Menacing Dennis.
BALTIMORE - With 14 Pimlico riding titles on his resume, Edgar Prado has proven he knows every inch of this main track. The connections of Harlan's Holiday hope Prado's knowledge of Old Hilltop can help their beaten Kentucky Derby favorite rebound in Saturday's 127th Preakness Stakes.
"Is it an edge? I'm not sure it is or it isn't," trainer Ken McPeek said of having Prado aboard Harlan's Holiday. "If you win a race like this by an inch, you take any edge you can get. It was something we discussed when we first put him on the horse. We felt he'd come in handy here."
BALTIMORE - Nick Zito was the first trainer to send his Preakness Stakes horses to Pimlico, bringing longshots Crimson Hero and Straight Gin to the stakes barn more than a week before the race. Until a few others started to trickle in early this week, followed by the contingent of horses that arrived Wednesday from Churchill Downs, Zito had the place, and the attention, to himself.
But he knew on Tuesday he was about to get the bum's rush from the stage.
"My two days are over," Zito said, laughing. "When everybody else gets here, you won't want to talk to me."
Four years ago, Joe De Francis, president of the Maryland Jockey Club, backed the wrong horse. He has been paying for it ever since.
In 1998, De Francis endorsed the pro-slots opponent of Parris Glendening, Maryland's anti-gambling, incumbent governor. Glendening won reelection, and he remembered his friends and punished his enemies. Since then, the possibility of slots at racetracks has faded, even as the racing business in Maryland deteriorated in part because of competition from West Virginia and Delaware, where slots are legal.
AUBURN, Wash. - Winitall's last race was so impressive that his trainer, Dan Markle, nominated him to Sunday's Fox Sports Net Handicap. But instead of sending Winitall against such top horses as Crowning Meeting, Handy N Bold, and King Jeremy in the Fox Sports Net, Markle has opted for a less ambitious spot, a $40,000 optional claimer at a mile on Saturday.
