HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There will be speed to burn in Monday's $65,000 Dame Mysterieuse Stakes at Gulfstream Park, and the fastest of them all may be Night Breeze, who brings an unblemished record into the five-furlong overnight stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
Night Breeze was perfect in three starts at 2 for trainer Graham Motion while campaigning exclusively at Pimlico. Two of those victories came in stakes, including the Maryland Million Lassie in her juvenile finale Oct. 13.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Saturday was a day of mixed emotions for trainer Nick Zito and the Buckram Oak Stable. The afternoon started on a high note when American Style, trained by Zito and owned by Buckram Oak, upset Legislator and Monarchooftheglen, the two favorites, in the fourth race, an allowance race for 3-year-olds. But their Florida Derby hopeful High Star lost the ninth race, another 3-year-old allowance, by a nose.
ALBANY, Calif. - A field of seven lightly raced 3-year-old fillies are scheduled to run in the California Oaks, Golden Gate Fields's holiday feature on Monday.
The $55,000-added race is at 1 1/16 miles on the turf course.
La Martina, trained by Jenine Sahadi, is the highweight at 120 pounds. Runaway Ab, winner of the Corte Madera Stakes on the Golden Gate Fields main track Dec. 29, is next at 118 pounds.
Rounding out the field is the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained entry of Glitter Gulch and Redmond, Krisana, Forty on Line, and My Sand Dollar.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Siphonic, widely considered California's top contender for the Kentucky Derby, missed a scheduled workout Saturday after he was found to have a temperature, trainer David Hofmans said.
Siphonic was scheduled to work six furlongs at Hollywood Park in preparation for the $250,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 17.
"He just had a little bit of a temperature," Hof-mans said. "It was very minimal. We have so much time there's no use screwing anything up."
OLDSMAR, Fla. - As the 2001-2002 Tampa Bay Downs meet approaches its halfway point, Don Rice is well on his way to his sixth local training title. Through Feb. 15 Rice has sent out 18 winners, giving him a seven-win lead over Lynn Scace and Anthony Pecoraro.
While there is a perception that Rice wins titles simply by starting more horses than anybody else, the statistics tell another story.
Rice's horses are winning at a 21-percent clip. And he's not just winning with favorites: The average Rice winner has paid just over $9.
Golden Oldie dominated Saturday's $50,000 Dust Commander Stakes at Turfway Park, easily drawing off to a five-length victory under jockey Axel DaSilva.
Golden Oldie, a gray horse by Gold Legend, returned $6.20 as the favorite in a field of nine older horses. He completed the one-mile distance in 1:36.66 over a fast track.
Little Lee led early but was easily overtaken leaving the backstretch by Golden Oldie, who in his previous start finished a sharp second in the
ARCADIA, Calif. - Lady George may be stabled in San Diego County, but her favorite track is clearly Santa Anita.
On Saturday, Lady George won her third stakes for California-breds at Santa Anita, the $107,400 Boo la Boo Stakes. Last year at 2, she won the California Cup Juvenile Fillies and the fillies division of the California Breeders' Champion Stakes. Trained by Tony Locke at San Luis Rey Downs, Lady George ($4.40) ran six furlongs in 1:10.25, getting a perfect trip from jockey Jose Silva.
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."