Thu, 12/20/2001 - 00:00

De Bertie could shake up locals

MIAMI - After banging heads with each other for most of the year, Castlebrook and Coolbythepool, the leaders of the local filly and mare handicap division, will have a major force to reckon with when Kentucky invader De Bertie joins the party for the inaugural running of the $100,000 Stage Door Betty Handicap Saturday.

Thu, 12/20/2001 - 00:00

Chicks Regard stepping up to stakes level

Fastest qualifier Chicks Regard will be after his fourth straight win when he starts in Saturday's Grade 3, $149,450 Sunland Fall Futurity at Sunland Park.

Trained by Juan Gonzalez, Chicks Regard will be making his stakes debut after three straight wins against lesser competition.

He started his winning streak by winning his maiden race in his second career start.

Wed, 12/19/2001 - 00:00

Dropdown set to end loss streak

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Having been ambitiously placed in her last few starts, Lost Expectations seems to have found a softer spot to end a four-race losing streak Friday when she heads a six-horse field going six furlongs in a preliminary allowance race at Aqueduct.

Wed, 12/19/2001 - 00:00

Almost everybody wants lead

NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Louie Roussel has already entered Kris's Sleigh twice this meet in Fair Grounds turf races, but Kris's Sleigh has yet to leave Roussel's barn in the afternoon. Rained off the grass both times he was supposed to run, Kris's Sleigh tries once more Friday in the Fair Grounds feature.

Wed, 12/19/2001 - 00:00

Irving's Baby easing back in

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Eleven weeks after being eased against some of the best fillies and mares in the country, * will return to the races Saturday against decidedly softer competition in the $100,000, Grade 3 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct.

Before being eased in the Grade 1 Beldame against Exogenous, Flute, and Spain, Irving's Baby was enjoying a solid 4-year-old season, with five stakes wins and a respectable third-place finish in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Handicap at Saratoga. Her performance in the Beldame could be attributed to fatigue from a grueling campaign.

Wed, 12/19/2001 - 00:00

Vanier has statebred who rates winter trip to Florida

For Harvey Vanier, the winter routine has pretty much been the same for as long as anyone can remember: Take the best horses to Florida and leave the rest behind in Illinois.

Invariably, many of the horses left behind by Vanier, who has been training since 1942, are homebreds or others without the pedigree or ability to compete against some of North America's best at Gulfstream Park. While Vanier spends most of the winter in Florida, his longtime assistant, Brian Williamson, stays home in Chicago, working quietly behind the scenes at Hawthorne in Stickney, Ill.

Wed, 12/19/2001 - 00:00

Dollar Bill works for first time since surgery

NEW ORLEANS - Triple Crown participant * breezed three furlongs at Fair Grounds last Saturday, the colt's first work since returning to training after surgery to remove a bone chip in his leg. Dollar Bill's breeze was a slow one, about 38 seconds, but was merely designed to serve as a stepping-stone for more intense works.

Wed, 12/19/2001 - 00:00

Castlebrook ready for the Stage Door Betty

MIAMI - Castlebrook breezed an easy half-mile in 49.60 seconds here on Wednesday. Trainer Bill Kaplan pronounced her fit and ready to accept her highweight assignment of 118 pounds for Saturday's $100,000 Stage Door Betty Handicap.

Tue, 12/18/2001 - 00:00

Amoss strategy: Win, win, win

Natalie Ardoin
Trainer Tom Amoss and owner Merwyn Sher won the Gaudin last Sunday with ex-claimer Robin de Nest (left).

NEW ORLEANS - It was quiet at Fair Grounds on Monday, one of the slow days of the racing week. Owner Merwyn Sher was in town from St. Louis to witness a nerve-racking stunt, the class-dropping free fall trainer Tom Amoss would perform with Causeimadoll, a horse owned by Sher's family partnership, Tom Boy Stable.

Tue, 12/18/2001 - 00:00

Hard to look past Hattiesburg

NEW ORLEANS - The Tom Amoss barn has been hot enough with stakes horses in stakes races. Imagine how the trainer will do with a stakes horse in an allowance race.

Four days after Amoss swept a pair of weekend stakes at Fair Grounds, *, a graded stakes-winning sprinter this season, pops up in the Thursday feature here.

There are no sprint stakes for older fillies and mares at this meet until Feb. 9, so Fair Grounds has carded a $40,000, six-furlong allowance with conditions suitable to stakes-quality fillies and mares - nonwinners of two races since Oct. 20.