ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mulrainy, who was scheduled to set out next month on the road to the $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks, is getting a bit of an early start to her 2002 campaign.
Mulrainy will make her seasonal bow in Sunday's second race at Woodbine, a six-furlong, first-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies, rather than in the Fury, a seven-furlong race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies May 5, which is the next stakes stepping-stone to the June 8 Labatt Woodbine Oaks.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Cole Norman has claimed more horses at Lone Star Park this meet than he has started.
Norman, who has been getting settled in after winning the recent Oaklawn title with 45 wins, has claimed six horses since the meet began April 4, and had started just two through Thursday.
Overall, 30 horses have been claimed in nine days of racing at Lone Star for receipts of $477,500.
CICERO, Ill. - The undefeated 3-year-old Cashel Castle will race in the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs next weekend, provided he completes his training for the race, including a final breeze scheduled for Tuesday, to the satisfaction of trainer Chris Block.
"If everything goes well the next six days, we plan on running there," said Block, who is at Keeneland this weekend to saddle a pair of starters.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Ken McPeek showed up in the winner's circle after he sent out Police Alert to win the third race Friday at Keeneland, the trainer was hobbling on crutches and wearing a special protective boot, the result of a foot fracture suffered in a pick-up basketball game Thursday night in Louisville.
"Fifth metatarsal bone," said McPeek, 39. "Six to 10 weeks." The fracture resulted from a wet spot on the playing surface. "My foot slipped, and then I kind of rolled it on the dry part," McPeek said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita has been informed by officials of the Fox Sports Net 2 cable network that the "Santa Anita Live" program," which has aired each racing day since January 1997, will be discontinued when the current meeting ends on Sunday.
Amy Zimmerman, Santa Anita's director of broadcasting, said she was told of the decision by Fox officials last week.
"As of right now, they have informed me formally in writing that they are going to exercise their option and not pick it up," Zimmerman said. "It's disappointing."
JAMAICA, N.Y. - With five wins, two seconds, and two thirds from its last 14 starters, Ernie Paragallo's Paraneck Stable is one of the hottest outfits on the grounds at Aqueduct.
To listen to Paragallo, it is not a coincidence that the hot streak has coincided with the firing of racing manager and veterinarian Steve Allday and trainer Richard Lundy earlier this month.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - After facing graded company in her previous two starts, Stormy Frolic should relish the drop in class when she takes on six other 3-year-old fillies in Sunday's $75,000 Christmas Past Stakes. The 1 1/16-mile Christmas Past is the final stakes race of the 2002 Gulfstream Park meet, which ends on Wednesday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The 2002 Gulfstream Park racing season ends Wednesday, but for the track's owner, Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment, the job of renovating the facility and preparing for the 2003 meet and beyond has just begun.
Magna is poised to begin an ambitious three-year, three-phase plan for Gulfstream Park, which includes the construction of a new simulcast center, concert area, and state-of-the-art clubhouse as well as the demolition of the track's grandstand.
, the brilliant but star-crossed 3-year-old trained by Bob Baffert, has a soft-tissue injury in a leg that will cause him to miss Saturday's $325,000 Coolmore Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, and require him to recuperate on a farm for three months, Baffert said Friday morning.
Baffert said the injury was discovered on Thursday, after Officer had a routine training gallop at Churchill Downs. "He has a suspicious-looking area," Baffert said. "Nothing is torn, but it's the kind of thing that if you go on, you've got problems."
ARCADIA, Calif. - There is a carryover of $117,360 for the final Friday program of the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita.
The nine-race program begins at 3 p.m.; the pick six covers races four through nine.
Here are the changes for the pick six races. In the fourth race, Six G's is scratched, leaving a field of 11 to contest a maiden race on the hillside turf course. Great White Father is the 9-5 morning-line favorite.