CALGARY, Alberta - Brighton Belle, winner of three stakes and runner-up to Little Lolitta as champion 3-year-old filly on the Alberta circuit last year, makes her 2002 debut versus four rivals in a six-furlong allowance at Stampede Park Sunday.
Brighton Belle has not been headed from the gate in her past eight starts, going back to her 2-year-old season, and will prove difficult to catch in this prep for the May 5 M.R. Jenkins Memorial.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Bill Morey is wise beyond his years, thanks in good part to working as an assistant to his father, William J. Morey Jr.
Bill Morey knows a horse's worth and where it is best to run him, as evidenced by his 23 percent win percentage this year.
And he has Schnitzel spotted nicely in Sunday's feature at Bay Meadows, a one-mile turf race with a $25,000 claiming tag.
Since claiming the 6-year-old mare Schnitzel for $25,000 on Nov. 26, 2000, Morey has seen her win four times in 10 starts and earn $81,240.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Swept Overboard ended 2001 as the top sprinter in California.
In October and November, he scored wins in the Ancient Title Breeders' Cup Handicap and Hollywood Turf Express, and was fourth, beaten only a length, in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Belmont Park.
Apparently, those accomplishments did little to impress the opposition. When Swept Overboard launches his 2002 campaign in Sunday's $125,000 San Simeon Handicap at Santa Anita, he faces a strong field over about 6 1/2 furlongs on turf.
AUBURN, Wash. - International showdowns have enlivened Northwest racing for decades, and another such match-up will occur on Sunday when British Columbian star Lasting Code invades to take on local star Strong Credentials and others in Sunday's six-furlong, $35,000 U. S. Bank Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
The Queen's Plate, Canada's most famous race and the oldest continuously run race in North America, has an intriguing history, especially when it comes to Canadian owners and breeders who have dominated the winner's list.
Joseph Seagram won eight consecutive Plates as an owner n the 1890's, and 15 Plates in total.
E.P. Taylor's legendary Windfields Farm won the race 11 times including five runnings between 1959 and the great Northern Dancer in 1964.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mulrainy, who was scheduled to set out next month on the road to the $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks, is getting a bit of an early start to her 2002 campaign.
Mulrainy will make her seasonal bow in Sunday's second race at Woodbine, a six-furlong, first-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies, rather than in the Fury, a seven-furlong race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies May 5, which is the next stakes stepping-stone to the June 8 Labatt Woodbine Oaks.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Cole Norman has claimed more horses at Lone Star Park this meet than he has started.
Norman, who has been getting settled in after winning the recent Oaklawn title with 45 wins, has claimed six horses since the meet began April 4, and had started just two through Thursday.
Overall, 30 horses have been claimed in nine days of racing at Lone Star for receipts of $477,500.
CICERO, Ill. - The undefeated 3-year-old Cashel Castle will race in the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs next weekend, provided he completes his training for the race, including a final breeze scheduled for Tuesday, to the satisfaction of trainer Chris Block.
"If everything goes well the next six days, we plan on running there," said Block, who is at Keeneland this weekend to saddle a pair of starters.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Ken McPeek showed up in the winner's circle after he sent out Police Alert to win the third race Friday at Keeneland, the trainer was hobbling on crutches and wearing a special protective boot, the result of a foot fracture suffered in a pick-up basketball game Thursday night in Louisville.
"Fifth metatarsal bone," said McPeek, 39. "Six to 10 weeks." The fracture resulted from a wet spot on the playing surface. "My foot slipped, and then I kind of rolled it on the dry part," McPeek said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita has been informed by officials of the Fox Sports Net 2 cable network that the "Santa Anita Live" program," which has aired each racing day since January 1997, will be discontinued when the current meeting ends on Sunday.
Amy Zimmerman, Santa Anita's director of broadcasting, said she was told of the decision by Fox officials last week.
"As of right now, they have informed me formally in writing that they are going to exercise their option and not pick it up," Zimmerman said. "It's disappointing."