HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Bedanken, who has won her last three races, including the $50,000 Dixie Belle Stakes opening day at Oaklawn Park, will make her first start around two turns Saturday in the Grade 3, $75,000 Honeybee.
The 1 1/16-mile race is one of three route stakes for 3-year-old fillies in the region Saturday. Also on the calendar are the Grade 2, $350,000 Fair Grounds Oaks in New Orleans and the $30,000 Sam Houston Oaks in Houston.
NEW ORLEANS - Forget all the talk about winter turning to spring. It's downright freezing here. It was so cold Sunday night that by Monday morning at Fair Grounds, the main track was frozen, looking like an ice blended mocha at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Track maintenance had to pound the ice out of the dirt, and the track finally opened for training at 9:10 a.m. The biting wind made this the Big Chill, not the Big Easy.
ALBANY, Calif. - One year ago, trainer Brian Koriner was preparing for the biggest race of his life with Hoovergetthekeys in the El Camino Real Derby.
Hoovergetthekeys won that race, and this year he will kick start Derby Week at Golden Gate Fields in Wednesday's featured 1 1/16-mile allowance race.
As tough as the field was in last year's El Camino Real Derby, with the likes of Startac, Mo Mon, and San Nicolas, Wednesday's feature could be even tougher.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - As the calendar turns to March, the migration of Southern shippers to New York is about to begin. Two horses that have wintered in the south are headed to Aqueduct this week and figure to be major players in Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Stymie Handicap.
Duckhorn, who wintered in Florida, and Wild Summer, who has been in Louisiana since late last fall, will add a little spice to the nine-furlong Stymie, the final stakes of the inner track meeting.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Crafty C.T. will be pointed for the $750,000 Met Mile at Belmont Park on May 27 after an impressive four-length win in an allowance race on Saturday at Santa Anita.
The victory, which came against a strong field, was Crafty C.T.'s first win since the San Rafael Stakes in March 2001. He subsequently finished second in the Santa Anita Anita Derby but ran poorly in two allowance races at Hollywood Park and Del Mar.
"I think we're back," trainer Howard Zucker said. "He was real impressive going to the wire. He ran like his old self."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A year ago Istintaj was the scourge of the Florida sprint division after winning the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector and Deputy Minister handicaps. But with six straight losses on his resume since those victories last winter, Istintaj will return to the allowance ranks for what could be a much-needed confidence booster in Wednesday's $46,000 feature at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - "It's a long year and we've got to get started somewhere."
That's the standard line most trainers give the press when bringing a stakes horse back off a layoff in the early part of the season. The idea is, the horse won't be going into its first race cranked up for its best effort right off the bench.
But trainer Carl Nafzger has other ideas for his undefeated 3-year-old filly Belterra when she makes her anticipated 2002 debut at Gulfstream in the $250,000, Grade 2 Bonnie Miss Stakes on March 15.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - Corona Kool gave trainer Donna McArthur her 50th stakes win at Los Alamitos in the $200,000 Los Alamitos Winter Championship. Corona Kool ran 400 yards in 19.55 seconds. She led throughout and won by a length over Hes My Dasher. Chiarascuro finished third in the field of nine.
The victory gave Corona Kool an automatic berth in the $500,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 14. McArthur said that Corona Kool would be given a vacation to have a bone chip removed from an ankle.
Request for Parole and Perfect Drift showed their dominance over Turfway-based 3-year-olds with another 1-2 finish, this time in the $100,000 . Request for Parole edged out Perfect Drift by a nose in the 1 1/16-mile race over a sloppy track. Thunder on Land was third, nearly 14 lengths behind the top pair.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The connections of Private Emblem and Paloma Parilla, who each won a division of the $75,000 Southwest for 3-year-olds last Saturday at Oaklawn Park, would not commit their colts to the Grade 3, $100,000 Rebel here March 23, although the race is an option for both horses.
