HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Due to Win, a 43-1 longshot, wore down 6-5 favorite Red n'Gold through the stretch to win the $75,000 Bayakoa Stakes by three-quarters of a length Friday at Oaklawn Park. It was another two lengths back in third to Caressing.
The Bayakoa was the first of nine stakes to be decided during the annual Racing Festival of the South at Oaklawn, which runs through April 13.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Picking up where she left off in 2001, Mystic Lady ran her winning streak to four with a three-quarter-length victory over Happily Unbridled in Friday's $75,000 Banshee Breeze Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Jostle, a multiple Grade 1 winner, finished a tiring third in her 2002 debut.
Mystic Lady closed out her 3-year-old campaign last year with three straight victories, including the Grade 2 Cotillion and Grade 3 Honey Bee Handicaps. Despite having been idle for five months, Mystic Lady was fit and ready for the 1 1/16-mile Banshee Breeze.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lone Star Park opened Thursday night to a large crowd, and a winning performance from the star of the evening, jockey Jerry Bailey.
Bailey, a Dallas native who grew up in El Paso, enjoyed a warm reception from the crowd of 14,123. Fans lined up to have his autograph soon after the gates opened, and later cheered him after he rode two winners from four mounts.
He won the $50,000 Premiere Stakes aboard Lights on Broadway in the meet's first race, and later won a $30,000 claiming race with Kris's Sleigh.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - There's an unbeaten horse in the Lafayette Stakes. Big deal. Unbeaten horses have won the race many times.
Yet here's the catch: From 1937 through 1981, the Lafayette was for 2-year-olds in the spring, which hardly gave anyone time to get beat. But since 1982, when Keeneland made the race for 3-year-olds, rare indeed has been the unbeaten racehorse to pass the Lafayette entry box.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - If speed and the rail are awfully good, then this must be Keeneland.
In the six dirt races Friday, the first day of the 16-day Keeneland spring meet, every winner either was on or very close to the lead, or rallied up the rail after lagging several lengths back in the early going.
Meanwhile, horses who were unfortunate enough to be caught three or fourwide on the final turn invariably faded toward the rear.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Darrell Vienna must have felt a little like Bobby Frankel heading into Sunday's $100,000 Miss America Handicap at Bay Meadows.
Frankel has been on a remarkable roll with his stakes runners (and did have three nominations to this race, although none will run).
Vienna, though, is holding the aces this time.
He nominated Grade 1 winner Janet and Queen of Wilshire to the race. Janet was the highweight among the nominees at 123 pounds with Queen of Wilshire listed second at 117.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Since she made her debut three years ago, Penny Marie has been a source of both potential and frustration.
Minor setbacks have limited the 6-year-old Penny Marie to 14 starts. She has won seven races, including two minor stakes, but has lost four graded stakes without winning one.
On Sunday, she can reach that milestone with a victory in the $100,000 Las Cienegas Handicap at Santa Anita, a Grade 3 over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.
"For her value as a broodmare, we need to win a graded stakes," said trainer Bob Hess, Jr.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Raven Power may turn out to be the latest star sprinter for Bruce Headley, who trains Kona Gold and Kalookan Queen, but Headley was not anxious to try him on a national stage following an impressive win in an allowance race on Friday.
Raven Power won a $53,000 allowance race by four lengths, finishing 6 1/2 furlongs in a quick 1:15.11. It was the 3-year-old Raven Power's second win in four starts, following a maiden victory on Jan. 6 and losses in two allowance races, at a mile and 1 1/16 miles.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Jockey Tim Doocy will try to remain perfect in four starts on Powder on Sunday in the $100,000 Carousel Breeders' Cup at Oaklawn Park. A two-time riding champ in Hot Springs, Doocy is in the midst of another strong season at Oaklawn, and after the meet will ride at Lone Star Park regularly for the first time since 1998.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Blink and you might miss it. The $100,000 Carousel Breeders' Cup will go as the first race at Oaklawn Park on Sunday, with four fast fillies in a six-furlong race that is new this year to the Racing Festival of the South.
The race is something of a grudge match between Powder and Spanish Glitter, who finished one-two, respectively, last month in the $50,000 Spring Fever Stakes at Oaklawn. The Carousel has also drawn Miss Seffens, who will launch what will likely be her final season on Sunday, and explosive allowance winner Southern Tour.