JAMAICA, N.Y. - Training hours at Belmont Park were relatively quiet on New Year's Day, the official birthday for Thoroughbreds, with few horses on the work tab and many horsemen taking the frigid morning off.
Tuesday was business as usual, however, for trainer Jimmy Jerkens, who is preparing the promising Iron Deputy for his 3-year-old and two-turn debut in Saturday's $75,000-added Count Fleet Stakes.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - After a pair of losses in Grade 1's against males, Xtra Heat resumed her winning ways in Tuesday's $81,925 Interborough Handicap* (click here for chart) at Aqueduct in her first start as a 4-year-old.
The New Year's card, which featured the popular calendar giveaway, drew an announced crowd of 15,383.
Delta Downs in Vinton, La., which could open a slots casino by the end of January, begins a 56-night mixed meet Thursday with eight races for Thoroughbreds and three for Quarter Horses. The season continues through April 7, and will be followed by a 44-night Quarter Horse meet from April 18 to June 30.
NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Harold Williams's pocket-sized stable fits into a quiet corner of an out-of-the-way Fair Grounds barn. But with Mimi's Tizzy and Drewman making up two-thirds of the operation, Williams has firepower.
Mimi's Tizzy won the Furl Sail Handicap here Friday, and Drewman, who returned from a long layoff and finished fourth in a sprint here Saturday, is likely to make his next start in the Jan. 20 Diplomat Way Handicap. Williams's third horse is Sophie, an unraced 2-year-old sister to Drewman by the promising sire Pulpit.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jerry Botts, racing secretary at Churchill Downs since 1985, died suddenly Tuesday after been diagnosed last weekend with cancer of the lungs and liver. He was 54.
Botts, a Tennessee native who grew up near Churchill and had been a racing official for 30 years, worked throughout the fall meet that ended Nov. 24. He had been in relatively good health until recently stricken. He died at Norton Hospital in Louisville after being admitted Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Paga's workmanlike win Monday in the Grade 3 Monrovia Handicap at Santa Anita established the South American mare as a potential star for the year 2002. Plagued by foot problems that prevented her from starting since late September, Paga won the "about" six and a half-furlong turf race by a length and a quarter over Twin Set. It was a half-length back to longshot third-place finisher Impeachable.
ARCADIA, Calif. - From 6 1/2 furlongs to a mile, Jeweled Pirate has proven in the last year that she is among the top California-bred fillies and mares, scoring wins in two turf stakes.
Wednesday, the 5-year-old Jeweled Pirate tries a new distance and surface as the likely favorite in the $100,000 Survive Stakes over 5 1/2 furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita.
Her trainer, Ray Bell, is optimistic that she can handle the shorter trip and surface in her first start since winning the California Cup Distaff on the hillside turf course on Nov. 3.
MIAMI - The long Calder season, which began in May, comes to a close Wednesday with a 12-race program that in all probability will not settle the Tropical-at-Calder training title until the official sign goes up on the afternoon's final race.
Trainers Manny Tortora, Dan Hurtak, Eddie Plesa Jr., and defending champion Bill White all still had a shot at winning the title going into the 52nd and final day of the Tropical at Calder meet.
NEW ORLEANS - You can see why trainer Josie Carroll wins about one out of every four stakes races she enters.
A perfectly spotted and prepped pair of Carroll-trained horses finished one-two Monday at Fair Grounds in the $75,000 Sugar Bowl Handicap, with Mapp Hill beating Lead by Example by 1 3/4 lengths.
