INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A year ago, Go Go was a half-length better than Kalookan Queen in the Desert Stormer Handicap at Hollywood Park. Then, both fillies were in top form.
Those two renew their rivalry in Friday's $100,000 Desert Stormer Handicap over six furlongs, but bettors may be reluctant to predict the same one-two finish.
In the last eight months, their careers have gone in different directions.
CALGARY, Alberta - Tontoboychuk, an astute $11,000 claim at Stampede last fall, will seek his fourth victory of the meet, matched against five rivals here in Friday's featured seventh race.
Trainer Dale Greenwood claimed Tontoboychuk, 5, on behalf of Jeannine and Maurice Normand, and already has realized a tidy profit while moving the gelding up the claiming ladder.
Greenwood leads the trainer's standings entering the final two weekends of this 43-day stand, and his best chance at victory on Friday comes with Tontoboychuk.
ELMONT, N.Y. - On Saturday, racing fans have some tasty appetizers to feast on before the $1 million Belmont Stakes is run at 6:10 p.m. Joining the 134th Belmont Stakes on Saturday's stellar 12-race card are four graded stakes, with solid lineups.
The undercard stakes are the $400,000 Manhattan Handicap, $250,000 True North Breeders' Cup Handicap, $200,000 Just a Game Breeders' Cup Handicap, and the $200,000 Riva Ridge Breeders' Cup.
ELMONT, N.Y. - When Magic Weisner, the Preakness runner-up, runs in Saturday's Belmont Stakes, it will mark the first time he has run outside the state of Maryland. He has run five times at Pimlico and six at Laurel Park, where he reeled off five straight wins from Dec. 8 through March 30.
Jockey Richard Migliore believes Magic Weisner's success at Laurel bodes well for Saturday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The pick six for Thursday's program at Hollywood Park will start with a carryover of $102,815 after bettors failed to hit the bet on Wednesday.
There was only one winning favorite in Wednesday's pick six. The winners were Wild Season ($47.20), Proud Girly ($18.80), Six G's ($12.40), Hot Weather ($4.40), River Bridge ($13), and Light Up the Phone ($12.60).
Thursday's pick six covers the third through eighth races on a program that begins at 1:15 p.m.
There are no changes in the first two races.
In the fifth race, West Mind is scratched.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mulrainy has shown all the attributes of a stakes-winning filly but has yet to put them all together.
Now trainer Tom O'Keefe, who has watched Mulrainy finish no better than second and no worse than fourth in five stakes appearances, is hoping she can rise to the occasion in Saturday's Labatt Woodbine Oaks, a $500,000 race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Three-year-olds have easily held their own when facing older opponents in preliminary allowance races so far at the Woodbine meet. In fact, many have been runaway winners, including Cheap Talk, Forever Grand, and Matter of Law.
Oh Livia D., the lone 3-year-old in Friday's fourth race, could continue the trend when she competes in a seven-furlong preliminary allowance for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Devil's Fantasy will make her local debut for trainer Emile Corbel in Friday's second race, a six-furlong conditioned allowance for fillies and mares that starts off the early pick three at Assiniboia Downs.
In her last start on May 11, Devil's Fantasy ran second in a claiming race at Churchill Downs. Tim Gardiner will be aboard Devil's Fantasy, who breaks from post 7.
Devil's Fantasy's biggest challenges should come from Tunnangannya and Itsacolddayinmay.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Only three weeks removed from a three-month riding stint in Saudi Arabia, veteran rider Abdiel Toribio will make Monmouth Park his summer home for the first time. Toribio's main base had been at Calder since he arrived in the United States in 1991.