MIAMI - Old friends Best of the Rest and Hal's Hope appear destined to bump heads once again as the connections of both horses are pointing their stars to the $100,000 Memorial Day Handicap on May 27.
Best of the Rest proved he is back on top of his game after posting his second straight convincing win in last Saturday's Phantom on Tour Handicap. Now 7, Best of the Rest closed out the Gulfstream Park meet with a three-length triumph over a similar group in the Unbridled Handicap.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Because of wet conditions, the two turf races scheduled as part of the pick 6 Wednesday at Churchill Downs have been transferred to the main track, leading to a slew of scratches.
The pick 6 carryover for Wednesday is $348,152, the largest in nearly seven years. As of 11:15 a.m. Eastern, the Churchill main track was full of moisture but sealed, and barring more rain, the track appeared to have a chance to be good or fast by first post, which is 3:10.
Here are the scratches from the pick 6 races:
Race 3 - None.
AUBURN, Wash. - A small but intriguing band of six 3-year-old fillies will compete at 5 1/2 furlongs in the featured race on Thursday.
The race is for $16,000 claiming fillies who have never won two races, and Vampira seems an excellent fit after running a strong second in a similar race at five furlongs on April 21.
Vampira, from the barn of Debbie Van Horne, contested the early fractions in the April 21 race before yielding and losing by a length to Lady Buccaneer, who won in a fast clocking of 57.20 seconds.
AUBURN, Wash. - Horses can change dramatically between their 2- and 3-year-old seasons, and that is apparently as true of divisions as it is of individuals.
Last year's crop of juveniles at Emerald Downs, especially the males, was generally regarded as sub-par. None of the stakes for the division was won in a fast time, and some were excruciatingly slow.
Medaglia d'Oro, who rallied to finish fourth in the Kentucky Derby, will have a new Hall of Fame jockey for the May 18 Preakness Stakes, with Jerry Bailey taking over for Laffit Pincay Jr., trainer Bobby Frankel said Tuesday.
Medaglia d'Oro got off to a poor start in the Derby on Saturday, then, because of the slower-than-expected pace, was caught in traffic for much of the race. "He was in trouble from the get-go," Frankel said.
Medaglia d'Oro was finishing well at the end of the race, but was still eight lengths behind the runaway winner, War Emblem.
The Meadowlands racetrack in New Jersey has scheduled two early-evening Thoroughbred races on May 15 and 16 to start its usual nighttime harness racing card.
The Thoroughbred races, run on turf, will go off at 6:35 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. both nights, with the harness card following on the dirt track at 8 p.m. A Thoroughbred-harness daily double will link the last Thoroughbred race and first harness race, officials with the Meadowlands said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The filly-mare turf division, already the deepest division at Hollywood Park, is about to get stronger. On Thursday, streaking Snowflake and graded-stakes comebackers Reine de Romance and Imperatriz Rafaela race 1 1/16 miles in a tough nonwinners-of-three allowance that could have stakes ramifications.
All three fillies are qualified to leap into stakes competition following the seventh-race feature Thursday, in which Snowflake is likely to be favored among the field of seven entered in the $58,000 allowance.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Milwaukee Brew, who would have been favored Sunday in the Grade 2 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap, will skip that race and start on June 15 in the Grade 2 Californian.
"[Owner Frank Stronach] wants to save him for the Breeders' Cup, he doesn't want to run him too much," trainer Bobby Frankel said.
Milwaukee Brew has raced twice this year, most recently on March 2 when he won the Santa Anita Handicap.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Thunderello showed trainer Scott Lake so much promise last year, he said, that it almost didn't matter that he and owner Charles Mady turned down a $2 million offer only days before the colt tore the suspensory ligament in his left foreleg.
"It's scary how good I think he could be," Lake said last September. `"Richard Migliore told me he's one of the best 2-year-olds he's been on in his life."
ELMONT, N.Y. - Xtra Heat, the speedy sprinter voted 3-year-old filly champion of 2001, will most likely make her next start in Sunday's $150,000, Grade 2 Genuine Risk Handicap at Belmont Park, trainer John Salzman said Tuesday.
Salzman said his other option is the $200,000 Maryland Breeders' Cup Handicap at Pimlico against males on Preakness Day, but added he would prefer to keep Xtra Heat running against her own sex for now. Salzman said he needed only to review the weights for both races before totally committing.