LOUISVILLE, Ky. - You had a terrific work Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs, going six furlongs in 1:13.20 over a fast track. Next Friday she will attempt to give Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel his third Kentucky Oaks victory in the last five runnings.
Frankel, who won the Oaks in 1998 with Keeper Hill and last year with Flute, said You is "doing as good as any filly I've had coming into this race. She's really getting over this track good."
Kim Loves Bucky, ridden by Jorge Chavez, forged to the lead at the top of the stretch and went on to a 12-1 upset Wednesday in the $150,000, Grade 3 Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.
Bred, owned, and trained by John Glenney, Kim Loves Bucky finished two lengths ahead of Rochester in the Elkhorn, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for older horses. Cetewayo, the 8-5 favorite, was another three-quarters of a length back in third in a field of 10.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - It's not a Keeneland tradition with as deep a history as, say, tweed jackets with elbow patches or corned beef sandwiches with mustard. But this will be the fifth year that horse races with hurdles have been run on the final day of the Keeneland spring meet.
Flat Top is one of the more recognizable names among a field of eight in the $175,000, Grade 1 Royal Chase for the Sport of Kings, a 2 1/2-mile steeplechase carded as the seventh of 10 races on closing day.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - When Patrick Valenzuela last rode at Hollywood Park in the fall of 1999, he nearly beat Laffit Pincay Jr. out of the jockeys' title in the meeting at which Pincay became the world's all-time winningest rider.
"I had a great meet," Valenzuela remembered on Wednesday. "But Laffit was going for the record and he was riding all the 6-5 shots."
Two years later, following a suspension for substance abuse problems that ended in December, Valenzuela is back at Hollywood Park, and is coming off a stellar meeting at Santa Anita.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Two horses at the top of their games will meet in Saturday's $250,000 San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile at Bay Meadows.
Trainer Bobby Frankel sends out Decarchy, who is 2 for 2 this year with victories in the Grade 3 Tanforan Handicap at Golden Gate Fields and Grade 2 Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita.
Trainer Richard Mandella, who is reassessing whether to send defending champion Redattore north, says he will definitely run The Tin Man, the winner of three straight allowance races.
MIAMI - The long Calder Race Course season has grown even longer. The deregulation of racing dates in Florida has moved the traditional late-May starting date up one month, and Friday's 10-race opener is the first of 181 programs to be presented here through Jan. 2, 2003.
The opening-day program will be highlighted by the $35,000 Powder Break Stakes for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. The event was split into two divisions and will be run as the fifth and ninth races.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - For some strange reason, in recent years Friday cards at Woodbine often have yielded perplexing results. A typical freaky Friday occurred last week, when an outside bias aided several huge longshot winners, and helped create a $671 superfecta in the finale with the numbers 12-13-11-14.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Three weeks after an impressive win in the Miss America Handicap at Bay Meadows, Crazy Ensign returns as the favorite in Friday's $100,000 Wilshire Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Even though she ran the top race of her U.S. career in the Miss America, the Argentine-bred Crazy Ensign has remained in top form in recent weeks, trainer Richard Mandella said.
"She gained weight after the race," Mandella said. "It didn't take too much out of her. She's a nice filly and training very well."
CALGARY, Alberta - Richard Hamel got off to a slow start in defense of his 2001 Stampede Park riding crown but served notice last weekend that he is back in form.
Hamel scored a hat trick on Friday and came back to win four races on Sunday, including an upset score in an allowance prep for the May 5 M.R. Jenkins Memorial with Tecate.
AUBURN, Wash. - The shortage of entries that has plagued other West Coast tracks hit Emerald Downs on Wednesday, when director of racing Grant Holcomb was able to fill only seven races with 43 horses for Friday's card.
"It's the first time in my career that I've only been able to fill seven races," said Holcomb, who served as racing secretary at Longacres and Yakima Meadows before taking his current position in 1996.
Although disappointed, Holcomb is convinced that the shortage of horses ready to race is temporary.