JAMAICA, N.Y. - Just 24 hours after 2-5 shot Pleasant County finished out of the money and wiped out $396,410 in show bets at Gulfstream, Nice Boots Baby, who had $253,506 riding on her in the show pool from a total pool of $275,489, finished last as the 2-5 choice in Saturday's $80,750 Dearly Precious Stakes at Aqueduct.
The winner was Proper Gamble, the second choice in a field of five
ARCADIA, Calif. - No disrespect to Spain or Printemps, but there are no superstars Sunday in the Santa Maria Handicap at Santa Anita. This belief is fine for Queenie Belle, the California-bred mare getting fat on cheap wine and poised to upset the first Grade 1 of winter for fillies and mares.
"It's not an easy race, a Grade 1 never is," said Queenie Belle's trainer, Ben Cecil. "But it's her distance
and it's reasonably wide open."
NEW ORLEANS - Repent has gone from being a 42-1 outsider when he finished second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last fall to the star of the show Sunday in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds. The only graded stakes winner in the field and by far the highest-rated horse in the race, Repent can seal his credentials as a major Kentucky Derby contender in the first start of his 3-year-old season.
Or he can raise doubts.
NEW ORLEANS - Last year he had the favorite for the Risen Star. This year, trainer Dallas Stewart isn't sure exactly what he has.
Stewart saddles Bob's Image in Sunday's Risen Star, and though the colt has won two straight races at the meet, both routes and both by open lengths, few are touting Bob's Image as a serious threat in the race. That's a far cry from last year, when Dollar Bill, the most intensely scrutinized 3-year-old training at Fair Grounds last winter, launched his campaign with a win in the race.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Two years ago trainer Christophe Clement and jockey Jerry Bailey joined forces to win Gulfstream Park's $100,000 The Very One Handicap with Innuendo. On Saturday the same team is a good bet to duplicate that result with Innuendo's baby sister Moon Queen, who will face just five rivals in the 1 3/8-mile turf race for older fillies and mares.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Jeff Bonde and jockey Jason Lumpkins agree on one thing: Fertile will be difficult to defeat in Sunday's Vallejo Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.
The $55,000-added Vallejo, a six-furlong stakes for 3-year-old fillies, was originally scheduled for Jan. 26 but was postponed when not enough entries could be found.
Bonde was ready to run Fertile then and will be even more ready Sunday.
Fertile won her first two starts last spring, winning a maiden race at Golden Gate Fields followed by the Nursery Stakes at Hollywood Park.
GROVE CITY, Ohio - Trainer Joe Martin has been fined $500 by Beulah Park stewards for running the wrong horse there Nov. 3.
Martin saddled a horse entered as Comic Grey to finish second in the eighth race that day, but the horse was actually Seventh Wish. The stewards said they believed Martin had made an honest mistake.
Track identifier Rob Fairholm also has been fined $250 and suspended five days for failing to catch the mistake. The purse for the race will likely be redistributed, with Seventh Wish being disqualified from all money.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A hotter pace and an extra furlong allowed Cat Cay to avenge a loss last month to Raging Fever, as Cat Cay defeated Raging Fever by a neck in Friday's $100,000 Shirley Jones Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
Cat Cay and Pat Day, her jockey, made a charge from last to first in a field of seven in the Grade 3 sprint. Raging Fever, who fought on bravely after being tested early, finished 1 1/2 lengths in front of Vague Memory.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The field for the $75,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 2 grew by two on Thursday when Bay Monster won the allowance feature and King Zonic won his maiden by 10 lengths. Both colts will point for the one-mile Southwest, which is the first of two local preps for the $500,000 Arkansas Derby on April 13.