AUBURN, Wash. - Sunday's Hastings Park Handicap at Emerald Downs figures to offer a change of pace for the older filly and mare stakes runners, and it will be a welcome change for Bud Klokstad, the trainer of Personal Decision.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The 2001 Jack Diamond Futurity winner Long Rifle makes his 3-year-old debut in the $35,000 City of Vancouver Stakes at Hastings Park Sunday but will face stern opposition in what appears to be a well-matched field. The 6 1/2-furlong feature drew seven horses including Cruising Kat, who won an entry-level allowance race at Golden Gate and finished fifth to Danthebluegrassman in the Golden Gate Derby.
CALGARY, Alberta - Little Lolitta, Alberta's champion 3-year-old filly of 2001, heads a solid field of seven older fillies and mares in the $40,000 M.R. Jenkins Memorial Handicap here Sunday.
Trainer Don Gilkyson sent out Little Lolitta to five victories last year, for earnings of $115,911 to claim her division title.
A daughter of Regal Remark, Little Lolitta comes into Sunday's feature without benefit of a tightener, but Gilkyson has prepared her with a series of strong works including a pair of bullet five-furlong moves.
Spain now the richest of all
By DAVID GRENING
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Spain put away the early challenges of Forest Secrets and Maltese Superb, then held off the late charge of Mystic Lady to win Saturday's $334,200, Grade 2 Louisville Breeders' Cup Handicap and move into the record books as North America's all-time leading female money-earner.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Following the Kentucky Oaks victory by Farda Amiga, these are the will-pays in the Oaks-Derby Double. The pool was $1,362,244. Payoffs are based on a $2 wager.
Farda Amiga with:
No. - Derby Horse, Double Will Pay
1 - Johannesburg, $510.40
2 - Wild Horses, 3,155.40
3 - Perfect Drift, 360.00
4 - Lusty Latin, 1,131.60
5 - War Emblem, 1,412.00
6 - Ocean Sound, 3,347.00
7 - Request for Parole, 1,336.00
8 - Essence of Dubai, 548.20
9 - Medaglia d'Oro, 415.00
10 - Buddha, scratched
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Corey Nakatani, who was scheduled to ride in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, sustained a "slight concussion" Thursday in a spill at Hollywood Park and will be sidelined until next week. The injury prevented Nakatani from riding Blue Burner in the Derby; he was replaced by Pat Day. Nakatani went down in the third race when his mount Whirlwind Trip clipped heels with Star Nine, the eventual winner ridden by Tyler Baze.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Dubai World Cup winner Street Cry is one of 16 Godolphin horses stabled at Belmont Park who are being pointed for late spring and summer campaigns in New York.
Street Cry, who arrived at Belmont Park with the other Godolphin horses on April 22, worked in the slop on Thursday. The official time for the five-furlong work, which was completed around the dogs, the cones that protect the inside of the track, was 1:08.65, breezing.
Laurent Barbarin, an assistant to trainer Saeed bin Suroor, said Street Cry was merely stretching his legs.
CHICAGO - Like a daytime soap opera, there was daily serial drama played out afternoon after afternoon last season at Hawthorne Race Course. Unlike the endlessly drawn-out soaps, Hawthorne found a sad conclusion to the plot at the end of almost every day.
At the heart of the story was a guaranteed pick six, put up by Hawthorne last spring to entice play from national simulcast bettors accustomed to channeling their bankrolls elsewhere.
CHICAGO - Chicago's west-side tracks, Sportsman's and Hawthorne, can be a real merry-go-round for jockeys. You're up, you're down, and round and round you go.
Just a year ago Zoe Cadman, the personable South African native, put an unlikely exclamation point on her rise through the local ranks of riders by winning a title at Hawthorne's spring meet. She rode 36 winners in 30 days, got a nice gold watch, and seemed to be featured on a local media outlet every other day. No woman jockey at Hawthorne had ever experienced remotely comparable success.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Anthony Reinstedler, who won the $500,000 Lone Star Derby last year with Percy Hope will try and make it two in a row Saturday with the late-running Peekskill.
A full field is expected for the 1 1/8-mile race, which will be run for the first time as a Grade 3.
Peekskill is a closer, and Reinstedler is hopeful that the Lone Star Derby will provide the hot pace the colt needs to fuel his late run.
"It looks like the way the race is coming up, it gives us a legitimate chance," he said.