SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - The top locally based horses will take on some tough out-of-towners here Saturday in both the $75,000 Sunland Park Handicap and the $60,000 Harry Henson Handicap.
Brew will have to step up a notch to defend his title in the Sunland Park Handicap, as he will face the Steve Asmussen-trained invader Big Numbers.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Saturday's inaugural running of the $250,000 Aventura Stakes at Gulfstream Park is being billed as a Kentucky Derby prep, even though only one of the nine prospective starters, Tampa Bay Derby winner Equality, has any realistic chance of being at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.
For 3-year-olds, the Aventura will be decided at 1 1/16 miles and highlights a 13-race program that also includes the $100,000 Artax Handicap and simulcast wagering on the Illinois Derby.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - More so than in most races, handicapping Saturday's $100,000 Grand Prairie Turf Challenge at Lone Star Park revolves around class and pedigree.
Five of the 12 entrants in the one-mile grass race have never raced on turf, giving reason to explore sire data and pedigree information in search of a horse with a grass future.
One such runner could be Paloma Parilla, winner of a division of the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park last month. He is a 3-year-old son of Dove Hunt, who won five graded stakes on grass.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. - Ernie the King never feared pounding out a day's work in his 131-race career. At age 9, he will start pounding the pavement in his new job as police horse for the Massachusetts State Police Mounted Unit.
Ernie the King's new life started this week. His athletic life ended on a positive note when he won his final race, last Saturday at Suffolk Downs, paying $41.60.
Bettors are clearly in love with Kimbralata. In six of her last 10 races, Kimbralata, a 4-year-old filly sprinter, has gone off at 2-1 or less, including four times as the favorite.
Kimbralata, who has been no worse than second in seven of her nine lifetime starts at six furlongs, figures to be a short price again Saturday in the $50,000 Primonetta, a six-furlong stakes at Pimlico that attracted a field of six fillies and mares.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Battle Mountain finds himself in a familiar situation coming into Saturday's $35,000 Dreisbach's-Dowd Mile Handicap at Fonner Park, the local prep for the April 27, $100,000 Bosselman-Gus Fonner Handicap.
The 8-year-old Battle Mountain comes into the race still looking for his first win of the year after rounding into form at Oaklawn Park the past few months. The scenario has been nearly the same each of the past two years, the exception being that he now has been running against high-priced claiming company at Oaklawn, not stakes and allowance rivals.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The question with Mayakovsky is whether he can get the distance. There is no such doubt regarding his trainer.
Patrick Biancone's life reads like an adventurer's travelogue. Born to a prominent racing family in France, he apprenticed for a Hall of Fame trainer in the United States, had brilliant success in the 1980's in his native land, journeyed to Hong Kong and was the leading trainer there, and for the last two years has been in the United States, where he now trains one of the nation's best 3-year-olds.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Their slogan once was "All Roads Lead to Keeneland," but that was when everyone had to pile in their cars to come to the track. Nowadays, world-wide technology is such that the depth and richness of racing at Keeneland can be appreciated by almost anyone anywhere. That, as they now say, is a good thing.
ALBANY, Calif. - Mellow Fellow, who won all four of his starts at the 2001-2002 Golden Gate Fields meet, including the Montclair and Danville handicaps, won three awards for the meeting.
A 7-year-old gelding, Mellow Fellow was voted the horse of the meeting, top older horse, and top sprinter. Mellow Fellow, owned by Ronelle Heller and his trainer, William J. Morey Jr., has won 10 of 23 career starts and $307,283.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Caressing could upset Red n'Gold if the pace is honest Friday in the $75,000 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park. The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares ushers in the track's Racing Festival of South, when at least one stakes a will be carded daily through the close of the meet April 13.
Highlights of the Festival include the Grade 1, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap and Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom on Saturday, and the Grade 2, $500,000 Arkansas Derby on April 13.
