Shippers continue to run well at Mountaineer Park. Last week, the first five-night racing week of the winter meet, horses who last raced at 11 different racetracks won.
Much like last winter, runners coming in from Turfway Park in northern Kentucky did best. Four Turfway shippers were winners.
Horses who most recently raced at Fair Grounds, Churchill Downs, Hollywood Park, and Aqueduct also won at least once.
GROVE CITY, Ohio - Veteran jockey Jorge Guerra has been on a roll through the first month of the Beulah Park winter-spring meeting and holds a 22-16 lead over Rex Stokes III as he goes for his first riding title here.
Stokes, who ranked among the leading apprentice riders in the nation last year, has adjusted well to his role as a journeyman rider.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Riders Newil Wall and Kelly Murray started out the Fonner Park meet last week by sustaining injuries in separate starting gate incidents, and both were on crutches in the racing office when entries were taken Wednesday morning.
Wall sustained a hairline fracture just above the ankle in a gate mishap Saturday and reported the injury to be more like a high ankle sprain. His objective is to be aboard Leaping Plum when the 11-year-old aims for an eighth straight victory in Grasmick Handicap on Saturday.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Bill Anton says the recent success of Strike for Glory is easy to explain.
"Our little boy has grown up," he said of the 4-year-old colt that will face five rivals in Friday's feature at Golden Gate Fields.
Strike for Glory has won three of seven starts since joining Anton's barn in July.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - He may not turn out to be a horse for the spring classics, but My Man Ryan could be developing into a useful 3-year-old for trainer Rick Violette and West Point Stable.
In his last two starts, both with blinkers, My Man Ryan has a maiden win and a solid second-place finish to a talented horse in allowance company. Friday, My Man Ryan will have an excellent opportunity to clear his preliminary allowance condition when he meets seven foes in the feature race over Aqueduct's inner track. The $44,000 race will be run at a mile and 70 yards.
NEW ORLEANS - After several weeks of waiting and wondering, Fair Grounds got its final answer in the mini-saga of Repent. One of the leading 3-year-olds in the country, Repent, accompanied by the 3-year-old filly Take Charge Lady, shipped from Gulfstream Park to Fair Grounds Tuesday afternoon.
* will certainly be the favorite in Sunday's Grade 3 Risen Star, while Take Charge Lady is likely to be favored Saturday in the Grade 3 Silverbulletday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The E.P. Taylor Stakes, Canada's premier turf race for fillies and mares, will be worth a record $750,000 this year.
The $250,000 increase for the Taylor is the one of the highlights of Woodbine's 2002 stakes schedule, which was released Wednesday. The list includes 100 stakes, worth a record total of $19.5 million with the continuing support of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's Thoroughbred Improvement Fund.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The field for Saturday's $200,000 Fountain of Youth, the first Grade 1 race of the year for 3-year-olds, had another starter confirmed when trainer Elliott Walden announced that Speed Hunter would run, bringing the field to eight.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Apprentice Kris Prather, an Eclipse Award finalist, has left Oaklawn Park to ride at Mountaineer Park in Chester, W. Va. She has a mount there Friday night, and will likely ride at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., on Saturday in a stakes, said her new agent, Roger Holbrook.
NEW ORLEANS - Loose on the lead with his ears pricked and an easy first quarter-mile behind him, Where's Taylor could already start to celebrate Mardi Gras Day as he ran down the backstretch in the Mardi Gras Handicap Tuesday at Fair Grounds.
But it turned out that Where's Taylor needed all of his early edge, as he narrowly held off King Slayer to win the $75,000 Mardi Gras by a nose.