VANCOUVER, B. C. - Hastings Park begins its 2002 season this Saturday with nine races including the $35,000 Fair Lady Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. But because of a shortage of horses ready to run, this Sunday and Wednesday's cards have been scrapped. Post time for the first race is 1:23 P.M.
"With a virus going around and the poor weather we've had this winter, there are a lot of horses on the grounds that are about a week away from running," said Phil Heard, general manager of Hastings.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The speedy duo of Rare Friends and Wild Whiskey, first and second, in the restricted Achievement Handicap, will renew their rivalry in the Woodstock Stakes on Saturday at Woodbine.
Five other 3-year-olds were entered in the six-furlong race, which is worth $136,750.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - It's a done deal. Well, almost a done deal.
That's pretty much the way Woodbine's attempt to take over the Pacific Racing Association, operators of Hastings Park Racecourse, has gone.
It looked like the deal, which has been ongoing for approximately a year and a half, was finished at last when the PRA and the Woodbine Entertainment Group scheduled a joint press conference for last Wednesday. But at the last minute it was canceled and another press conference has been set for May 1.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Far from the hustle and bustle, on the outlying edge of the backstretch, Fancy As quietly checked into trainer Brian Palaniuk's barn here recently after a winter in California with Bob Baffert.
Fancy As was a horse of the year and divisional champion in British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba last year, when he won eight of nine starts and $431,941 for Linda Smith and her husband, trainer Red Smith. But Fancy As was outpointed by Win City, Ontario's top 3-year-old male, for the division's Sovereign Award title.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - In the 67 years that Keeneland has been conducting horse races, on only a handful of occasions has a trainer won the same stakes race as many as three years in a row.
Harry Trotsek was the only trainer to pull off such a feat twice, winning the Ben Ali Handicap four consecutive times and the Phoenix Handicap three times in a row, both streaks coming in the 1950's. Only two other trainers have registered three straight wins in a Keeneland stakes race: Pat Devereux Sr. in the Fayette (1969-71) and Victor "Whitey" Doleski in the Ben Ali (1972-74).
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Danny Hutt thought he might have had a starter for the 128th Kentucky Derby in Bunk N Ted. But when that colt came up with a quarter crack "and a couple of other little problems," Hutt no longer had a Derby horse.
Hold that thought - if only for a moment. Red Masque, a Red Ransom colt Hutt trains for Real Deal Racing, will "absolutely go to the Derby if we can get in" after upsetting five other 3-year-olds, including heavily favored Royal Gem, in the $111,000 Forerunner Stakes at Keeneland on Wednesday.
CHICAGO - His last running line will make you wince, and the chart caller's comment concerning his performance - "collapsed after race" - might send you scurrying toward an alternative. And still, is very much the horse to beat Saturday at Sportsman's Park in the $200,000 National Jockey Club Handicap.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Friday's $100,000 Valiant Pete Handicap at Santa Anita is a comeback for Full Moon Madness, rested after a year-long layoff. The same can be said about his trainer, Robert Marshall.
When Full Moon Madness went to the sidelines last spring, Marshall decided to also take a break. The 57-year-old trainer turned over his horses to assistant Ruben Cardenas and hit the road.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The cancellation of this year's Pimlico Special is likely to be a boon to the $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap, which will be run on June 1 at Suffolk Downs.
In mapping out the schedules for some of the top handicap horses in the East, horsemen are targeting the Mass Cap as their next major goal. They are just wondering the best way to get their horses there.
Among those being pointed to the Mass Cap are , Mongoose, Include, and Evening Attire.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Supah Blitz was bred to be a stakes winner. His sire, Mecke, was a two-time Grade 1 stakes winner of more than $2.4 million while his dam, Boots 'n Jackie, won the My Dear Girl and Golden Rod Stakes and finished third in the 1992 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
So it would come as no surprise if Supah Blitz became the first 2-year-old stakes winner in the country this year with a victory over seven other juveniles in Friday's $75,000 Valid Appeal Stakes at Gulfstream Park.