FLORENCE, Ky. - Eight 3-year-olds were entered Thursday at Turfway Park for the $500,000 Spiral Stakes, the Grade 2 race that highlights the weekend of Kentucky Derby preps around the country.
This is lineup for the 1 1/8-mile race, which will be run Saturday:
| PP | Horse | Jockey |
ARCADIA, Calif. - Friday's seventh race at Santa Anita is a $70,000 allowance race with such a quality field that it more closely resembles a graded stakes.
Run over a mile on turf, the race drew nine runners, including such familiar names as Ladies Din, Touch of the Blues, I've Decided, and Thady Quill. They face the well-regarded European shipper Shibboleth; Climate, who is returning from a 14-month layoff; and Big Board, who is trained by Richard Mandella.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - In what conjures up memories of another era in racing history, Bold World will attempt to win her second stakes race within a five-day period when she goes against four other 3-year-old fillies in Friday's $75,000 Charon Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Wilzada, who trainer Tony Dutrow believes is the best 3-year-old filly in his barn, is sick and will miss Saturday's $100,000 Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct.
"She came off the track coughing this morning, and we scoped her, and her airway was full of mucus," Dutrow said Wednesday from his Laurel Park barn. "It's too bad."
Dutrow said he is now targeting the Nassau County Stakes at Belmont Park on May 11 as Wilzada's next major objective, with perhaps an allowance prep before then. Dutrow hopes to use the Nassau County as a prep for the Grade 1 Acorn on June 7.
Keeneland officials said Wednesday that takeouts on multi-horse bets would be returned to 19 percent during the upcoming spring meet. The decision ends an experiment during last year's three-week fall meet in which takeout was reduced to 16 percent across the board, the lowest rate in the country.
FLORENCE, Ky. - Even though Azillion wasn't able to win a first-level allowance race in two tries in Southern California, trainer Bob Hess Jr. thought the time would come when would deserve a trip to an out-of-town stakes race.
Indeed, when he runs Saturday in the $500,000 Lane's End Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park, Azillion will be embarking on a somewhat diversionary path toward the Triple Crown. Hess believes Azillion, an Irish-bred colt based at Santa Anita, has the running style to be a major factor in races outside of his home circuit.
FLORENCE, Ky. - Under different circumstances, Saratoga Blues would be long gone from the 30-horse stable that Tony Dutrow trains at Laurel Park in Maryland.
There are few things that Dutrow loves more than selling a horse at his peak value. And with , who is undefeated in three starts and frequently mentioned as one of the most promising 3-year-olds in America, it would seem there's no time like the present to sell.
"Sure, I wouldn't mind selling him," said Dutrow. "But the owners don't want to."
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Both Private Emblem, winner of a division of the $75,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn on March 2, and Descapate, third as the favorite in the Grade 3, $200,000 Oaklawn Breeders' Cup last Saturday, will bypass the next logical races for them on the Oaklawn stakes calendar, according to trainer Steve Asmussen.
Private Emblem, who has done his best running when his races are spaced well apart, will pass this Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Rebel Stakes and instead go straight to the Grade 2, $500,000 Arkansas Derby on April 13.
NEW ORLEANS - Hap is neither a true miler nor a true stayer. That makes the nine-furlong distance of Sunday's Explosive Bid, to say nothing of the race's $700,000 purse, a good spot for Hap's first start of the season. And if Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott's assessment of Hap's condition is correct - and there's no reason to think it's not - Hap is in the Explosive Bid to win, not just to get his year started.
"He's got as much in him now as he did when he made his first start last year," Mott said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Dave Donk is looking for big things from his grass specialist Sharp Performance this season. But Donk is not quite ready to throw his latest turf star in against the wolves in Saturday's $250,000 Pan American Handicap.