PHOENIX - Bobby Frankel has managed to cut a stakes swath from Southern California to Texas to Kentucky to Illinois to New York, like Sherman marching through Georgia to the sea. Now Arizona comes under his gaze.
Frankel sends graded stakes performers Decarchy and Auction House to lead the $150,000 Turf Paradise Breeders' Cup Handicap at Turf Paradise on Saturday on what may be the biggest live-racing day of the meet.
Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Okla., which experienced a 6 percent increase in handle last year following the spring closing of a nearby Native American-run offtrack betting parlor, opens for 84 days of racing Saturday.
The meet will feature Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred racing, and will be conducted on Saturdays and Sundays this season, a departure from the track's traditional Friday to Sunday schedule. The meet continues through Nov. 24.
Citing poor business, New York Racing Association chairman Barry Schwartz said on Thursday that Aqueduct would be closed for simulcasting on Mondays beginning Feb. 4.
Schwartz said NYRA could no longer justify the expense of keeping Aqueduct open when handle on two major Monday signals, Gulfstream and Fair Grounds, had failed to live up to expectations.
"The quality of racing has been so poor at Gulfstream that we're just not doing the same numbers," Schwartz said. "We're way down, and there's no reason to keep the track open."
ARCADIA, Calif. - The Seven Seas threw in such a clunker finishing seventh in the Yellow Ribbon Stakes last September that trainer Bobby Frankel knew there had to be an explanation.
The puzzle was solved when The Seven Seas was diagnosed with an entrapped epiglottis that kept her from breathing properly.
Four months later, following surgery to correct the problem, The Seven Seas returns in Friday's $75,000 Reloy Handicap at Santa Anita. "She's been operated on and she's fine," Frankel said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Pelirrojo closed from last to win a * for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita on Wednesday, a victory that put him on course for the preps to the Santa Anita Derby.
Ridden by Garrett Gomez, Pelirrojo won a three-horse photo. He finished a neck in front of Raven Power, the 4-5 favorite and pacesetter, who was a head in front of Azillion. Puerto Banus, a half-brother to Spain, the winner of the 2000 Breeders' Cup Distaff, finished fourth in a field of seven.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Travis Dunkelberger, the country's third-leading rider last year with 395 winners, began riding fulltime at Aqueduct on Wednesday.
Dunkelberger, 24, has come to New York to ride on a first-call basis for the hot owner-and-trainer team of Richard Englander and Scott Lake. The rider finished sixth and fifth aboard his first two mounts on Wednesday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Despite having things his own way and losing a two-length lead in the final furlong, Scagnelli's second-place finish at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 12 was extremely strong.
Speed on turf was not holding, Scagnelli was making his first start in two months, and it took a graded stakes winner, Drama Critic, to run him down.
NEW ORLEANS - It was nearly two years ago that Gary and Mary West had a pretty fair reason to believe they might have a contender for the 2000 Kentucky Derby. Their Wild Again colt named Patent won a maiden race at Gulfstream Park in highly impressive style, and soon would face a more revealing test about his quality.
