INGLEWOOD, Calif. - You thought the turf festival was over? Think again.
Two competitive turf races highlight the Thursday card at Hollywood Park, and trainer Barry Abrams voiced the main concern of many participants involved.
"We don't know how the turf course is going to be," he said.
Hollywood Park took considerable rain Saturday, and by late Sunday, the heavily-used course - on which six races were run during or after rain - was labeled "yielding."
JAMAICA, N.Y. - During a New York winter there's no such thing as a one-turn mile. With the inner-dirt track scheduled to open next week, that explains why there are five of them on Aqueduct's Thursday card.
Among them is the eighth, a $56,000 allowance for 3-year-olds and up that drew a field of eight. The field is a tough one, with well over $2 million in combined earnings, and each entrant having run in at least one graded or group stakes this year.
NEW ORLEANS - As is typical at the beginning of a race meet, the two divisions of an optional claiming race Thursday at Fair Grounds are all about comebackers. In the eighth race, seven of the eight entrants haven't raced in more than a month, and half the eight horses in the ninth race come off a month-plus layoff. Both races are for fillies and mares going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf.
NEW ORLEANS - With the Churchill Downs meet over, trainer Bobby Barnett shipped the last of his Kentucky string south to New Orleans on Monday morning, just like he did last year. But unlike last year, when Barnett was going through what he calls "a little dry spell," he is bringing a promising group to Fair Grounds this winter.
Remington Park in Oklahoma City closed its first full season of Thoroughbred night racing last Saturday with declines in average daily attendance and handle. Late last year, the track's new owner, Magna Entertainment, installed a lighting system at Remington.
During the 59-day meet, daily attendance was 2,337, down 4 percent from last year's corresponding season, which ran 73 days. Daily handle at this meet averaged $496,352, a 9 percent drop from 2000.
Despite the decline in handle, average daily purse distribution was up 3 percent to $100,325.
ALBANY, Calif. - For handicappers who enjoy solving puzzles, Thursday's feature at Golden Gate could be the ultimate 1,000-piece jigsaw.
A field of seven 3-year-old fillies will compete in the $40,000 optional claiming race. Five of the seven are coming off layoffs of six weeks or more.
Leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer sends out an uncoupled entry of Bullish Miss, who spent the summer with him in Chicago, and Our R.N., unraced since Feb. 1.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Few horses improved at this Woodbine meeting as much as No Comprende.
No Comprende, a 3-year-old gelding who has won three of 10 starts and $134,300 this year, also has raised the profile of his trainer, 35-year-old Jim Smith.
Although he has been training only since 1999, Smith's racing background dates back to the mid-1970's, when he began attending the races at Fort Erie with his parents.
"I was following racing for as long as I can remember," said Smith, who was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and holds dual citizenship.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Officer, the winner of the Champagne Stakes and beaten favorite in both the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and California Cup Juvenile, may not make trainer Bob Baffert's team for the Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 15.
On Sunday, Baffert said he was leaning toward starting *, the runner-up in the Hollywood Prevue Stakes on Nov. 17, and Mountain Rage, who won the Generous Stakes on Saturday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Churchill Downs fall meet, which ran Oct. 28 through Saturday, continued a familiar trend as all-sources wagering set an all-time high and ontrack numbers were mixed.
All-sources wagering at the 24-day meet totaled nearly $174.8 million, eclipsing the meet record of $160.6 million, set during a 23-day meet last year (discounting a 24th program, Breeders' Cup Day, for comparison purposes). The daily average of $7,282,573 is a 4.3 percent increase over last year.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winner Expected Hour looks tough in a strong nine-horse field in Wednesday's sixth race at Woodbine, a six-furlong allowance for 2-year-olds.
Mark Casse has trained four runners in the lineup at some point this year, including Expected Hour, who was a $450,000 2-year-old purchase by the partnership of Bill Farish Jr., George Bolton, Edward Gaylord, and Elizabeth Grossman.