Magic Weisner, the 2001 Maryland Juvenile Championship Stakes winner, headlines a field of seven Maryland-bred 3-year-olds in the $60,000 restricted Goss Stryker Stakes at Laurel Park Saturday.
A three-time winner in his six-race career, Magic Weisner will try to fend off a powerful entry from trainer Anthony Dutrow in the seven-furlong race, as well as The Sewickley Kid, a four-length winner of a one-other-than allowance in his last start.
When they last met under the lights at Turfway Park, Miss Pickums was a solid favorite over Seven Four Seven in a Jan. 23 allowance race.
Funny how that works. When they meet again Saturday afternoon at Turfway in Florence, Ky., it's hard to say who will be the favorite: Seven Four Seven, who posted an emphatic 6 1/2-length victory in that race at 5-1, or Miss Pickums, who as a graded winner is still well regarded despite her disappointing fourth-place finish at 8-5 that night.
AUBURN, Wash. - The Grade 3 Longacres Mile, which will be run for a purse of $250,000 on Aug. 25, tops a schedule of 35 stakes worth $2,070,000 at the upcoming Emerald Downs meeting, which will stretch 89 days from April 19 through Sept. 16.
The most noteworthy change on the 2002 stakes schedule is that the purse for the one-mile Barbara Shinpoch Stakes, the meet's championship event for juvenile fillies, has been boosted $20,000 to $75,000 for its Aug. 24 running.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Plenty of snow remains from the 12 inches that fell in the area last week, but it hasn't slowed activity in the barn area at Fonner Park, which opens for its 49th season of racing Saturday.
The 40-day meet runs through May 11 and is once again anchored by the $100,000 Bosselman-Gus Fonner Handicap. The Bosselman has had a six-figure purse since 1993, and annually it attracts some of the better older handicap horses in the Midwest.
PHOENIX - To give you an idea how tough Saturday's $50,000 Glendale Handicap came up, there are four co-highweights in the field of 10 -
and the horse to beat isn't even among them.
Secret Index, who has come of age in Southern California, takes her act on the road to Turf Paradise in the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for fillies and mares.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - It will be the dangerous out-of-town shippers versus the local heroine Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs. Chausson Poire, a filly who won the first three races of her career here, heads an overflow field 14 fillies and mares entered for the $75,000 Endeavour Stakes at about a mile and a furlong on the turf.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. - Many a story has described the New England Patriots as plucky underdogs who overcame the odds to win the Super Bowl. At least one horse in Saturday's $30,000 Yankee Fashion Stakes, for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs, can be described similarly.
Maggie's Song has won both her races, including a 9 1/2-length romp in a first-level allowance on Jan. 2. Like the local football team, she has had to overcome adversity to get where she is.
LAFAYETTE, La. - A barn fire on the Evangeline Downs backside early Thursday morning resulted in the death of eight horses. No human injuries were reported.
According to Evangeline Downs officials, the fire broke out at about 3 a.m. in Barn Q, which houses approximately 25 horses. Trainers Bill Stice and Donald Moran each lost three horses to the blaze; the Gerald Lanerie-trained veteran claimer Here Come Da Judge was killed, and Ray Schexnider lost one horse.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The competition De Bertie faces in Friday's $100,000 Sabin Handicap at Gulfstream Park is significantly tougher than the field she beat last year in this race. Still, there are several reasons to believe De Bertie could be a repeat winner in the Grade 3 race for older fillies and mares.
