GROVE CITY, Ohio - Down Thepike Mike will attempt to win the Edward Babst Memorial Handicap for the third straight year Saturday at Beulah Park. Down Thepike Mike, who returns from an 11-month layoff, faces 11 other Ohio-breds in the $40,000, six-furlong race.
Down Thepike Mike began his 2001 campaign with a 1 3/4-length victory in the Babst on April 7. He returned one month later and took the Quick Step Handicap at Thistledown. He has been sidelined since.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Fancy As, the winner of seven stakes in western Canada last year, is slated to join trainer Brian Palaniuk's string at Woodbine.
Owned by his onetime trainer, Red Smith, and his wife, Linda, Fancy As spent the winter in Southern California with Bob Baffert, where he finished third in both the San Fernando and Strub and seventh in the Santa Anita Handicap.
Fancy As is still in California, but Palaniuk, a longtime acquaintance of Red Smith's, said the horse is scheduled to be flown to Lexington Thursday and then van to Woodbine.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - It would be an understatement to say trainer Michael Dickinson is good with layoff horses. His reputation was forged on that premise with Da Hoss, who returned from a two-year layoff to win the 1998 Breeders' Cup Mile.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The Grade 1, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday may not have a true star, but the race has drawn a well-matched field of eight horses, several of whom have the potential to improve their standing in the handicap division.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Carl Nafzger concedes that Take Charge Lady probably has the edge on Belterra in the Ashland Stakes on Saturday.
But, he cautions, things could get a lot more interesting after that.
Take Charge Lady "definitely has a better chance this time than she will the next," said Nafzger, who has said for months that the May 3 Kentucky Oaks is the long-term goal for his latest stable star, .
CHICAGO - Someone once said one definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and continually expecting to get different results. David LaCroix did not become a successful horseman by doing stupid things.
Fonz's twice has signaled to LaCroix that he doesn't relish running over the track surface at Santa Anita, and that's reason enough for LaCroix to redirect his Kentucky Derby hopeful from Saturday's Santa Anita Derby to the Illinois Derby, where he'll probably be the second choice behind Repent.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - After pleasing his connections with a strong work between races at Aqueduct on Thursday, Say Florida Sandy likely will make his 8-year-old debut in the $350,000 Carter on April 13.
, under jockey Aaron Gryder, worked six furlongs in 1:12.49 and galloped out seven furlongs in 1:25.30.
On hand for the work, which took place in between the fourth and fifth races, were Say Florida's Sandy trainer, Juan Serey, and his owner, John Rotella.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Evening Attire and Ground Storm, stakes winners who dominated the New York handicap ranks this winter, are the horses to beat in Saturday's $200,000 Excelsior Breeders' Cup at Aqueduct.
Not much separates Evening Attire, who carries 119 pounds as the Excelsior highweight, and Ground Storm, who totes 118 pounds in the Grade 3, which drew a field of six.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Sunday's $100,000 Miss America Handicap at Bay Meadows could prove to be the perfect stepping-stone for a pair of talented mares based in Southern California.
Crazy Ensign, a graded winner in South America, and Impeachable are seeking their first American stakes victories in the one-mile race over the Longden Turf Course.
Crazy Ensign, a 6-year-old mare with three Grade 1 wins in her native Argentina, has had health problems since arriving in Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella's barn.