SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - Sunday's $100,000-added New Mexico State University Handicap will test Yulla Yulla, the queen of the New Mexico circuit, as she attempts to stretch her speed around two turns while facing male rivals.
The NMSU Handicap, a mile race for older statebreds, will be Yulla Yulla's second career try at a route, her first being a disappointing fourth-place effort Jan. 2.
ALBANY, Calif. - Twenty-one stakes will be offered during the upcoming Bay Meadows spring meeting, which runs from April 3 through June 16 in San Mateo.
The centerpiece of the stakes schedule is the San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile, a $250,000 Grade 2 event slated for April 27 on the Longden Turf Course. The Mile is northern California's highest-graded race.
The $200,000 Bay Meadows Breeders' Cup Sprint, a Grade 3 race at six furlongs, has been shifted from the fall to the spring and will be run May 11.
ALBANY, Calif. - Northern California's leading trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, is sitting pretty with his 3-year-olds.
The 3-year-old stars of his barn, Metatron, U S S Tinosa, Cappuchino, and Yougottawanna are all nominated to the Triple Crown. On Sunday at Golden Gate Fields, he will send out a nice 3-year-old filly, Lost at Sea, in the feature race.
"I like her," Hollendorfer said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There is no easy way for Western Pride's 10 opponents to challenge him in Saturday's $400,000 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita.
To beat Western Pride, the winner of the San Fernando Breeders' Cup Stakes last month, someone must take him on early. If they collectively leave him alone, Western Pride will steal an easy lead. If a rival confronts him, Western Pride can take the challenge, a tactic that worked on a speed-friendly track in the San Fernando on Jan. 12.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - There will be more than a Grade 2 victory and the winner's share of a $150,000 purse on the line for Maybry's Boy, the heavy favorite in Saturday's Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park. A big performance could also mean a starting berth two weeks down the road in the Grade 1 Fountain of Youth Stakes.
Six 3-year-olds were entered for the seven-furlong Hutcheson, whose past roster of winners includes Spectacular Bid, Swale, and Holy Bull.
NEW ORLEANS - Almost every trainer worth his stopwatch and baseball cap has had a horse like Dynameaux come through his shedrow - talented and promising but also disappointing and mysterious.
For Steve Asmussen, who will saddle Dynameaux in a full field of 14 older horses Saturday in the $150,000 Fair Grounds Breeders' Cup Handicap, few things would ease the frustrations of such a puzzle as much as Dynameaux pulling a mild upset under Frank Lovato Jr. in the about 1 1/8-mile grass race.
ALBANY, Calif. - Janet will continue her march to millionaire status when she heads a field of five older fillies and mares in Saturday's $100,000 Brown Bess Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.
The 5-year-old mare would go over $900,000 in career earnings with a victory in the Grade 3, 1 1/16-mile turf race. The race attracted only five runners and will be run as the third race on the card, which gets underway with an early 12:15 p.m. first post.
ARCADIA, Calif. - At seven furlongs, the $150,000 San Vicente Stakes is already beyond the established credentials of six-furlong winners Popular and Werblin. At Grade 2 status, the race also presents a severe class hurdle for the two talented sprinters.
Then there is Came Home, who fits the conditions to a T. Already a Grade 1 winner at seven furlongs, and the overwhelming favorite to win his first start of the season, Came Home heads a field of seven in the San Vicente for 3-year-olds, the sixth race on a 10-race card highlighted by the Grade 2 Strub Stakes.
Hollywood Park has made significant revisions to the stakes schedule for the upcoming spring-summer meeting, adding a $500,000 stakes for 3-year-old fillies, dropping five events and putting two of the meeting's most important races on the same day.
The 51-race schedule is highlighted by six races worth $500,000 or more, the anchors for several top days.
The $500,000 Gamely Breeders' Cup and the $500,000 Shoemaker Breeders' Cup Mile are the co-features on May 27. The purse of the Gamely has been doubled, while the Shoemaker purse has been increased $150,000.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Louisiana Downs is seeking to open an offtrack betting parlor in Webster Parish, but approval must first come from the residents of the parish in an April 6 referendum. Among the locations under consideration for the facility is the town of Minden, about 20 miles east of Louisiana Downs along busy Interstate 20.
The facility would be the first for Louisiana Downs, which can open up to two offtrack betting locations in each of the parishes adjacent to Bossier Parish: Desoto, Webster, and Caddo.
