PORTLAND, Ore. - Duke de Portola and Stregawood, the one-two finishers in a claiming race on Jan. 21, will head a bulky field of 11 under similar conditions in Friday's 1 1/16-mile Portland Meadows feature, for older $4,000 claimers who have never won three races.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Don Burke is looking forward to Saturday's $100,000 Brown Bess Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.
He's hopeful that a six-month freshening will help Polaire earn her first American graded stakes victory when she runs in the Grade 3, 1 1/16-mile turf race.
Polaire has not run since a fifth-place finish in the Modesty Handicap at Arlington Park last July 28.
"She came out of the race a little sore in front," Burke said. "I think it was a residual effect after being in training for a year and a half.
NEW ORLEANS - For the last 10 years, purse increases have been as much a part of the Fair Grounds meet as seafood gumbo or red beans and rice. In fact, director of racing Mervin Muniz estimates he has announced purse increases 35 or 40 times during the last decade.
So when it was announced Monday that purses would be going down, not up, a long-welcome trend met a rude reversal.
By winning four races on back-to-back cards at Mountaineer Park last weekend, jockey Dana Whitney has taken a commanding lead in the rider standings after 12 days of the winter meet.
Whitney has ridden 24 winners in 94 mounts, more than twice the number of winners of distant runner-up Gary Birzer, who has 10.
Among the trainers, despite being shut out on Monday and Tuesday, Dale Baird maintains a 12-5 lead over Gary Johnson.
Eleven weeks into the current meet at Delta Downs, veteran Steve Bourque continues to sit atop the rider standings with 61 wins. Bourque is currently serving a seven-day suspension for careless riding.
During Bourque's downtime, Guy Smith narrowed the gap in the standings with a couple of two-win evenings last week and now trails Bourque by 10 victories. Journeyman C. J. Woodley and Jeri Nichols are tied for third with 40 wins each.
Tough prep for Connally Turf Vergennes, a Grade 1 winner of $741,374, headlines Friday night's feature at Sam Houston, a 1 1/16-mile turf allowance worth $24,000 that should produce starters for the track's $200,000 Connally Breeders' Cup Turf on Feb. 23.
Vergennes wired an allowance field in his last start Dec. 14, but will likely face more competition for the lead Friday from a couple of horses, including Schaumburg, winner of the $25,000 Buffalo Bayou Stakes in November and 2 for 3 over the local course.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Chris Block could have found any excuse to get out of Chicago and head to south Florida for part of the winter. In his unbeaten 3-year-old Cashel Castle, Block has the best excuse a horse trainer could want.
Block will learn more about his untested colt on Saturday when Cashel Castle takes a logical step up in class and runs in the $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 2 Hutcheson, run at seven furlongs, is a stepping-stone to the Fountain of Youth, a Grade 1 race run on Feb. 16.
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Portland Meadows meeting, which was supposed to stretch 80 days through April 28, will close Feb. 10 after 46 days of racing. The early closing is because the track's operator, Magna Entertainment, will not be able to fulfill its agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency to complete a new waste water disposal system by Feb. 15.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Dean Pederson faced a decision this week regarding Super Tuesday, a 4-year-old daughter of Political Ambition who has earned $201,310 in her career.
Super Tuesday won the $100,000 Work the Crowd Handicap at one mile on the turf in her last start. It was an easy decision to nominate her to Saturday's $100,000 Grade 3 Brown Bess Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on Golden Gate Fields' turf course.
But the decision whether to run her in the Brown Bess was not so easy.
