HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A week ago, Mongoose came out of a fourth-level optional claiming allowance race to win the Grade 1 Donn Handicap. Saturday, Drama Critic will attempt to successfully make the same class jump when he faces 11 other turf specialists in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Handicap.
The $200,000 stakes at 1 3/8 miles on the grass highlights the undercard on Saturday's 12-race Fountain of Youth program.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Saratoga Blues, unbeaten in three starts after winning last Saturday's Whirlaway Stakes over the inner track, will most likely make his next start in the $200,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 17, trainer Tony Dutrow said Thursday.
Though Dutrow would prefer to keep * racing around two turns, he said the one-mile, one-turn Gotham is a better spot than the Louisiana Derby on March 10 or the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway Park on March 2. Both of those races are run at 1 1/16 miles around two turns.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Nobody was surprised when Nice Boots Baby won last month's Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct. What may have been surprising was the manner in which she won.
After posting gate-to-wire victories in her first two starts, Nice Boots Baby was behind horses for the first time in the Ruthless. Last in a field of four approaching the quarter pole, Nice Boots Baby charged home four-wide under Mario Pino to win by 2 1/2 lengths.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Laffit Pincay Jr. reached the 9,300 mark in career wins Wednesday at Santa Anita and immediately set his sights on bigger milestones.
"This means a lot to me," Pincay said. "I'm looking forward to 9,500 and then we'll see how I'm doing. Hopefully, I will have a chance to reach 10,000." Pincay rode his 9,300th winner, Stage Player, in Wednesday's second race. The win comes 26 months after the 55-year-old Pincay surpassed Bill Shoemaker as the world's winningest rider with No. 8,834.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Devout Sinner's increased willingness to rate should serve her well Saturday when she goes for her fifth consecutive win, against one of the deepest fields she has ever encountered, in the $50,000 Pippin at Oaklawn Park.
The 1 1/16-mile race has drawn 10 fillies and mares, including the up-and-coming Victory at Sea, who could go favored on the heels of back-to-back allowance wins for trainer Elliott Walden; the improving Momentous, who has placed in two stakes in her last two starts; and Please Sign In, who is dropping out graded stakes company.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Please Sign In's record tells her story. Last year, she did not win a race, but finished second seven times in 10 starts.
"It can be a heartbreaker," said trainer Eugene Brajczewski about watching Please Sign In repeatedly give her all on the lead only to be overtaken late. "She runs her eyeballs out."
Brajczewski hopes the mare's fortunes will change Saturday when she drops in class from Grade 3 company and switches back to dirt for the $50,000 Pippin at Oaklawn Park.
OLDSMAR Fla. - Slew Valley is another of Michael Dickinson's band of turf stars. His accomplishments last season included a close third to With Anticipation in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer and a game second to King Cugat in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Handicap.
Slew Valley is slated to make his 2002 debut Saturday as he tops a field of 14 entered for the $85,000 Tampa Bay Breeders' Cup Stakes at 1 1/16 miles over the Tampa Bay Downs turf course.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Leaping Plum owns three track records, has been favored in 33 of 64 starts, and on Saturday will attempt to extend what most likely is a world record when he seeks to win the Grasmick Handicap at Fonner Park for the eighth straight year.
"No pressures. If he doesn't win, we're more than happy with what he's done," said trainer Joe Moss during the entry draw Thursday. "We've won seven straight - it won't last forever."
PHOENIX, Ariz. - There's little doubt that in the pond known as Turf Paradise Hangonslewpyhangon is the biggest fish. A 6-year-old, he goes into Saturday's $50,000 Coyote Handicap looking to solidify that position, having won three straight sprints this meet.
All that Glacial needed when he started his career 42 races ago was a few more Turfway Parks in the world.
Glacial, a gray gelding trained by Dan "Speedy" Smithwick Jr., has won the Prairie Bayou Stakes at Turfway. He has won the Tejano Run Stakes at the Florence, Ky., track. And he has won the Dust Commander Stakes there, too. From a lifetime bankroll of $399,675, more than half has come from his starts at Turfway.