ALBANY, Calif. - Cowboy Jack Kaenel was meant to be a jockey.
When he was 16, Kaenel won the 1982 Preakness aboard Aloma's Ruler, defeating Bill Shoemaker aboard odds-on favorite Linkage. Kaenel got the lead early and outshoemakered Shoemaker as he got Aloma's Ruler to set comfortable fractions and win by a half-length.
It was perhaps his biggest moment but not his biggest thrill.
Scott Lake became only the second trainer in racing history to win 400 races in one season when Skipjack Cove won the first race at Philadelphia Park on Sunday afternoon.
Following the race, Lake said, "It's the culmination of a lot of hard work. I was also happy to be able to share it with those closest to me."
Three of Lake's assistants - Steve Krebs, Tim Hooper, and Sam Righter - were present for the milestone win, along with his girlfriend, Jennifer Stisted, and his daughter Emily.
Blue Hills ($21.80), equipped with blinkers for the first time, scored her first stakes victory by holding off Unbridled Lady by a half-length in the 1 1/16-mile Carousel at Laurel Park.
"I just wanted her to get out of the gate well," said winning rider Phil Teator, who came into the program with just six wins in 108 mounts. "We were on the lead pretty easily and when I hit the button she gave it to me. The blinkers really helped her."
Blue Hills, trained by Jim Murphy, has now won five of 16 starts this season, including two of her last three races.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Pat Valenzuela was scurrying through the Santa Anita stable area Sunday morning, getting on as many horses as possible as he tries, yet again, to resurrect his checkered career.
Valenzuela, 39, recently received a conditional license from the California Horse Racing Board, allowing him to ride for the first time in more than 1 1/2 years. He secured three mounts on Wednesday's opening-day card at Santa Anita, beginning with Fall For Me in the fourth race.
ARCADIA, Calif. - They are separated by nearly 18 years, but they are close in every other way. Laffit Pincay Jr. and Alex Solis both hail from Panama and both have carved out successful riding careers in this country. They stick close to each other in the Santa Anita jockeys' room, where they have lockers near one another.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A little more than two months ago, just before the Breeders' Cup, trainer Bobby Frankel had a hammerlock on the older horse division. Aptitude had won the Jockey Club Gold Cup, allowing Frankel to keep Lido Palace, the Whitney Handicap and Woodward Stakes winner, out of the Breeders' Cup Classic for the Japan Cup Dirt.
Then it all went wrong. Aptitude was the beaten favorite in the Classic, and Lido Palace ran up the track in Tokyo, a straggler in a strange land. They were rare blips during Frankel's late-season stakes assault.
GROVE CITY, Ohio - A memorial service for apprentice jockey Arnold Ruiz was held Sunday in the Beulah Park winner's circle prior to the races. Ruiz died in a three-horse spill here Saturday afternoon.
The accident happened when Winds of Sonora, ridden by Ruiz, took a bad step and fell in midstretch of the third race. Both Kaicoltra, ridden by Chuck Costanzo, and My Martina, ridden by Mike Heath, fell over Winds of Sonora and Ruiz. Neither Costanzo nor Heath was seriously injured.
MIAMI - Bobby Frankel has had a year other trainers only dream about. And it's not over yet.
Frankel figures to add to his already imposing graded stakes winning total for 2001 campaign when he makes a rare visit to south Florida for Saturday's Grand Slam II program. Frankel will send out multiple Grade 1 winner Super Quercus in the $150,000 W.L. McKnight Handicap and The Seven Seas in the $150,000 La Prevoyante Handicap. The two California invaders will be the starting highweights and likely favorites in the Grade 2 races.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - After watching Coyote Lakes prevail in a hard-fought 1 1/2-mile duel over Banner Headline on Dec. 9, trainer Bruce Levine was concerned about whether the horse would be able to bounce back quick enough to run in the Gallant Fox Handicap.
After watching him train the past two weeks, Levine is no longer worried and is very much looking forward to Coyote Lakes trying to defend his title in Saturday's $100,000 Gallant Fox Handicap at Aqueduct.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The way his horses have been running lately, it seems only a matter of time before trainer Erik Juvenon finds Aqueduct's winner's circle.
His time could come Wednesday when Juvenon sends out Mickey the Groom in the featured preliminary allowance race at nine furlongs as racing resumes at Aqueduct following a three-day holiday break.