Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., will begin using color-coded saddlecloths when it opens for its 54-day meet Jan. 25. In other changes this season, the track will start its 5 1/2-furlong races at the same point as its six-furlong races and end them at the sixteenth pole, the same auxiliary finish line used for the track's one-mile races.
"As far as I'm aware, we're one of the last organizations to go to colored saddletowels," said Oaklawn spokesman Terry Wallace.
Devout Sinner won her fourth consecutive stakes when she drew clear by three-quarters of a length as the favorite in the $50,000 Distaff Handicap at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston. Slapstick finished second, 1 1/2 lengths in front of third-place finisher Coastalota.
Devout Sinner ($4.20) stalked pacesetters Caustic Remark and Itsaprincess early before taking the lead into the stretch. She covered 1 1/16 miles over a track rated fast in 1:45.51 under regular rider Cliff Berry.
ARCADIA, Calif. - They come from a land Down Under, and they are here to pillage and plunder. First it was Kalatiara, and now Old Money has joined the ranks of top-class Australian mares who have been purchased by Robert and Janice McNair's Stonerside Stable and placed with trainer Ron McAnally.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Siphonic, the top 3-year-old male in California, continues on schedule for trainer David Hofmans. Siphonic worked seven furlongs in 1:26.40 at Hollywood Park on Sunday, preparing for Saturday's $150,000 Santa Catalina Stakes at Santa Anita.
The winner of the Hollywood Futurity last month and the third-place finisher in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last October, Siphonic ran the final furlong of the workout in 11.20 seconds and galloped out a mile in 1:39.20, according to trainer Hofmans.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Bill Morey admits he got frustrated earlier in the Golden Gate Fields meeting, but he heads into Wednesday's feature race feeling pretty good.
One reason is that Schnitzel looks like the one to beat in the 1 1/16-mile $25,000 claiming race on the turf. Another reason is that Morey comes off a training double last Saturday.
"I was definitely frustrated, but I never hit the panic button," said Morey, a long-time assistant to his father, Bill Morey Jr.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The field is small but picking the winner isn't easy, because five of the six horses entered in Wednesday's featured eighth race at Aqueduct ran virtually identical Beyer Speed Figures in their most recent sprints.
The six-furlong, $45,000 allowance is for non-winners of three races lifetime, and everyone in the field is a newly turned 4-year-old, with the exception of Prime Customer.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Apparently, Tout Charmant is not ready to call it a career.
After losing all three starts last year and with retirement a possibility, Tout Charmant won the fifth graded stakes of her career in Sunday's $150,000 San Gorgonio Handicap* at Santa Anita.
The win gave trainer Ron McAnally his 100th stakes win at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, joining Charles Whittingham (204) and D. Wayne Lukas (100).
NEW ORLEANS - If all of her races were at Fair Grounds, Histoire Sainte might be a champion. On Sunday, Histoire Sainte won the Sixty Sails* for the second straight year and ran her record on the Fair Grounds turf course to three-for-three.
In fact, the French-bred Histoire Sainte has raced 14 times in the United Stakes and has never won a race away from New Orleans. Besides her twin scores in the Sixty Sails, she won the Bayou Breeders' Cup here in 2000.
ARCADIA, Calif. - After being passed in the final furlong, Popular rallied past Roman Dancer to win his first stakes in Sunday's $107,900 San Miguel Stakes* at Santa Anita.
Always near the front, Popular shook clear to lead by a length at the eighth pole. Roman Dancer, who was fourth early, launched a late rally and led briefly in the final sixteenth. Popular, racing on the inside, was a head behind Roman Dancer but rallied to win by a nose.
