If Late Carson ships from New York, he will be a solid choice in Saturday's $75,000 Damitrius Stakes at Delaware Park.
But trainer Richard Dutrow has cross-entered Late Carson in the $100,000 Bold Ruler Handicap at Belmont Park the same day as the Damitrius. Considering the purse is higher and he would have to face just four rivals in New York as compared with 11 foes at Delaware, Late Carson is more likely to stay home.
Defending world champion Tailor Fit begins his quest for his third world championship in the last four years when he goes for his third consecutive win in the Grade 1, $78,480 MBNA America Oklahoma Challenge at 440 yards Saturday at Remington Park.
Tailor Fit, owned by Betty Jane Burlin and trained by Janet Van Bebber, is starting 2002 with a plan similar to his 2001 championship campaign. Like last year, Tailor Fit is coming off a rest since the Grade 1, $500,000 Champion of Champions in mid-December.
PHOENIX - Odds are that if you told owner/trainer Arlene Phillips her crack mare Nikki's Angel was going to run six furlongs in 1:08.60 in the April 27 Ann Owens Distaff Handicap she would have jumped for joy knowing she had won.
Well, she did win in that fast time, but she wasn't in the spotlight on her own - she dead-heated with the very fast Knoll Lake, 10 lengths clear of the third-place finisher.
Last year's ontrack rivalry between riders Joe Bravo and Eibar Coa at Monmouth Park came to abrupt end when Bravo was injured in a spill. The battle resumes on Saturday when the track opens its doors for its 2002 meet.
Bravo, a winner of eight Monmouth Park riding titles, suffered multiple leg fractures in the July 27 spill. At the time of the accident, Bravo led Coa by one winner. Coa went on to win his first Monmouth Park title and Bravo hung on for third, despite missing more than a month of the meet.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Tom Agosti entered the new Fort Erie season with just five wins in 85 starts from the winter and early spring.
Usually a noted high-percentage trainer, Agosti's 6 percent win average gives the impression that he is floundering. At a similar time last year, Agosti, 44, left the winter meet at Tampa Bay Downs with a hefty win percentage of 24, having scored 10 times in 42 attempts.
Agosti, however, seems very content with his recent achievement. It was his game plan.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Three of the best horses at Assiniboia Downs make their 2002 debuts in Saturday's featured seventh race.
Two-time defending local horse of the year Corporate Shuffle faces older horse for the first time in the five-furlong allowance, which attracted a field of eight.
A 4-year-old son of Diablo, Corporate Shuffle makes his first start for trainer Clayton Gray and will be ridden by Manuel Alicea for the first time. A winner in eight of 11 lifetime starts, Corporate Shuffle breaks from the rail as the 122-pound highweight.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Will the third time be the charm for A Fleets Dancer?
Canada's reigning champion older horse, A Fleets Dancer makes his seasonal bow in Saturday's Eclipse Handicap after having finished fourth in the last two runnings of the 1 1/16-mile stakes.
Roger Attfield, who trains the 7-year-old A Fleets Dancer for Cam Allard, is cautious when discussing the horse's prospects for the Eclipse, his first start since Dec. 29.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Down Thepike Mike is highweighted at 121 pounds at Thistledown on Saturday afternoon, when he will match strides at six furlongs with seven other Ohio-breds in the $40,000 Quick Step Handicap.
Down Thepike Mike, a rapid 8-year-old gelding, has been the top Ohio-bred sprinter throughout his career, fashioning a 18-5-4 record from 32 starts for earnings of $383,901.
In his lone appearance this year he was third in the six-furlong E. Babst Memorial at Beulah Park on March 6 after an 11-month respite.
ALTOONA, Iowa - The Iowa-bred Sumthintotalkabout will face off against Soul Onarazorsedge and five other fillies and mares when she heads the $50,000 Prairie Rose Stakes on Saturday night at Prairie Meadows.
Sumthintotalkabout scored an easy three-length victory in a $52,000 allowance event for state-breds here April 27 in her only start of the year.
A 5-year-old daughter of Kyle's Our Man, she was a multiple stakes winner in 2001, including a victory against open company here last August in the Iowa State Fair Stakes.