ARCADIA, Calif. - Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas each will nominate eight to 10 horses to the Triple Crown this week, but there is plenty of sorting out to do before either trainer can name his leading candidate to the spring classics.
"If they were to run the Derby in two weeks, I'd run Habibti," Baffert said Tuesday. "The fillies are better than the colts right now. We're going to nominate her to leave our options open. If things fell apart, we'd consider running her there instead of the Oaks."
ARCADIA, Calif. - Evening Meeting is the best filly in the seventh-race feature at Santa Anita, but the gap in her workouts is no mistake. The filly, by General Meeting, came out of her romping maiden win with a bruised foot that might compromise her chances in a first-level Cal-bred allowance on Thursday.
"We lost about two weeks with her," trainer Bob Baffert said. "All we did was feed her carrots and give her mints. But she worked good the other day."
TORONTO - Woodbine Entertainment Group has reported a record handle of $1.35 billion in 2001, an increase of 11 percent from 2000, which was the previous record year.
Woodbine Entertainment Group, formerly known as the Ontario Jockey Club, operates Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto and Mohawk Raceway in nearby Campbellville, Ontario. Woodbine hosted 165 days of live Thoroughbred racing plus 100 days of Standardbred racing, while Mohawk hosted 157 days of Standardbred racing in 2001.
For the first time in nearly 30 years, Keeneland Race Course has a new racing secretary. Ben Huffman, 33, was named Tuesday to replace Howard Battle as racing secretary at the Lexington, Ky., racetrack.
Huffman, the son of and a former assistant to trainer William "Blackie" Huffman, had served since 1994 as Battle's assistant. He also is currently employed as a racing official at Kentucky's three other major tracks and previously has worked at Saratoga and Belmont.
NEW ORLEANS - Lake Lady, perhaps the most talented 3-year-old filly at Fair Grounds, is leaving the ranks of sprinters and heading into two-turn stakes races. And like any unusually talented horse with a sprinter's pedigree, her ability to win a route race will be questioned.
NEW ORLEANS - If Carl Bowman's speed horse doesn't get the money in the Fair Grounds Thursday feature, maybe his closer will.
Bowman's high-percentage barn has two of the seven entrants in Thursday's ninth race, a 1 1/16-mile route for fourth-level allowance hoses or $100,000 claimers. Astrologist, winner of a Nov. 30 off-the-turf race one class below this, has the early gas, while On Your Mark, fifth in a good race at this class Dec. 17, is a stretch runner with a quick burst of late acceleration.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Dennis Patterson won't say that Aussie Girl has given him gray hairs, but he won't deny it, either.
Aussie Girl's running style, from well off the pace, can give trainers, not to mention bettors, gray hairs or worse. But she has such a strong closing kick and will to win that she has seven victories in 18 starts and has won both of her starts at Golden Gate Fields.
She will try to go 3 for 3 at Golden Gate in Thursday's feature, a $40,000 optional claiming race at one mile.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Forty on Line, the winner of the $200,000 Miesque Stakes at Hollywood Park in November, is taking a pay cut to face a tougher field in Wednesday's $75,000 Blue Norther Stakes at Santa Anita.
* won the Grade 3 Miesque in a 20-1 upset, but must face two highly respected European shippers trained by Bobby Frankel in the Blue Norther - Nunatall and Megahertz.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The time to begin separating the pretenders from the contenders on the long and difficult road to the Kentucky Derby begins in earnest at Gulfstream Park Wednesday with a pair of two-turn preliminary allowance races featuring several promising 3-year-olds, whose connections are hoping they remain on the Derby trail.
Both races are at 1 1/16 miles for a $34,000 purse.
The opening division, to be run as the sixth race, is led by Governor Hickel, Sledge, and the lightly raced but exciting Stephentown.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The field for Saturday's $100,000 Skip Away Handicap lost two contenders on Monday and two more were listed as questionable. The Grade 3 Skip Away is the prep for the Grade 1, $500,000 Donn Handicap on Feb. 9.
Trajectory, who has finished first or second in nine of 10 career starts, suffered a ligament injury in his left foreleg and could be sidelined for an extended period of time.
