ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mysterious Affair, the top older filly or mare sprinter at Woodbine in 2001, returns from a long sabbatical as the 122-pound highweight in Friday's $102,800 La Voyageuse Handicap.
Mysterious Affair had four consecutive front-running victories here last spring for owner-trainer Mort Hardy. Her streak began with a victory over favored Torrid Affair in the April 13 Whimsical Stakes, and continued two weeks later in the allowance prep for the Grade 3 Hendrie Handicap.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Beau's Town, who has won his last four races by a combined 13 lengths, will get tested for class Friday in the $50,000 Hot Springs Stakes, a six-furlong race that has drawn some of the best sprinters at Oaklawn Park, as well as tough Texas shipper Boots on Sunday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - So far, luck has deserted Stardan since his arrival in the United States last fall.
In his U.S. debut on Feb. 23, Stardan lost a shoe and was no factor in an allowance race. On Friday, the 4-year-old Stardan is entered at Santa Anita in a $57,000 allowance race over a mile on turf, but is stuck on the also-eligible list and needs a scratch to join the field.
The race drew 13 entrants, but only 10 are allowed to start, because the temporary turf rail is set 30 feet from the permanent position, reducing the width of the course.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Sunday Break earned a berth in next month's $750,000 Wood Memorial by winning an over five rivals at Aqueduct on Wednesday after an eventful stretch run.
Sunday Break, under Gary Stevens, had a comfortable lead when he ducked in twice in the final furlong of the 1 1/8-mile race. Stevens regained Sunday Break's focus and the colt went on to win the race by one length over Tomahawk Lake. A claim of foul by Tomahawk Lake's rider, Richard Migliore, was not allowed.
Sheri Garcia, the 37-year-old exercise rider who died on Tuesday morning while exercising a horse on the Pimlico training track, wanted to get a jockey's license in order to ride the horse she was working that morning, according to trainers and racing officials in Maryland.
"She wanted to be a jockey," said Georganne Hale, the racing secretary at Pimlico and Laurel. "She told people she wanted that horse to be the first ride she had, in the horse's first race."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Bill Mott, whose arsenal of outstanding turf horses is seemingly endless, has another star on his hands in Orchard Park, who figures to extend his current win streak to four when he faces nine rivals in Friday's $75,000-added Gravelines Stakes. The 1 1/8-mile Gravelines is restricted to 3-year-olds who are registered Florida-breds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Harlan's Holiday got back to serious business Wednesday for the first time since his victory in the $1 million Florida Derby on March 16, working five furlongs in a slow 1:03.40 seconds at Gulfstream Park. He is scheduled to make his next start in Keeneland's Blue Grass Stakes on April 13, which will be his final Kentucky Derby prep.
With jockey Edgar Prado aboard, Harlan's Holiday was never asked to extend himself in the drill, which was the second-slowest of 11 five-furlong works on Wednesday's tab. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:17.80.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Despite being pounded by two severe winter storms this past week, Thistledown will begin its 187-day racing season Friday afternoon. For the first time in eight years, Thistledown will go solo and drop the 7&7 racing format, under which it was part of a single simulcast signal with either Beulah Park or River Downs.
Director of racing Bill Couch says that with the exception of opening day he will card seven races on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and eight races on Saturdays and Sundays. Friday's card has eight races.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - A budding rivalry between Cat Cay and Raging Fever, plus the 2002 debut of Two Item Limit, will make for an interesting Distaff Breeders' Cup at Aqueduct on Saturday.
Cat Cay and Raging Fever have traded wins the last two times they met in Florida stakes.
Adding intrigue to the $150,000 Distaff Breeders' Cup will be Two Item Limit, who finished a good third in the Breeders' Cup Distaff in her last start on Oct. 27 at odds of 32-1.
ALBANY, Calif. - Even before he purchased Bring the Heat, trainer Wesley Ward believed the colt would be a runner.
The 4-year-old Bring the Heat, who has never finished off the board in six starts, goes for his first stakes victory Saturday in the $100,000 Berkeley Handicap at a mile at Golden Gate Fields.
"I'm very excited about his chances," said Ward, who first noticed Bring the Heat when the horse was working at Santa Anita in preparation for a sale in Florida.