HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It was not trainer Linda Rice's intention to run her multiple-stakes winning filly August Storm against males in her 3-year-old debut. But when the Tropical Oaks was moved to the dirt and an allowance race did not fill, Monday's $65,000 Dave Feldman Stakes at Gulfstream Park was Rice's only viable option if she was to make the Herecomesthebride Stakes here on Feb. 3.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Between them, Hook and Ladder and Istintaj won all five of their starts at Gulfstream Park last winter, including each of the meet's major sprint stakes. Once they left south Florida, the pair went a combined 0 for 10 the remainder of the season.
Thus it is not surprising that trainers John Kimmel and Mark Hennig are glad to have their star sprinters back at Gulfstream, where they will hook up against seven rivals in Sunday's $100,000 Mr. Prospector Handicap.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Next Saturday, trainer Eddie Plesa will find out just how good a 3-year-old he has in O'Rocky when the upset winner of the What a Pleasure Stakes runs in the $100,000 Holy Bull Stakes. On Friday, Plesa found out just how much O'Rocky liked Gulfstream Park's main track by vanning him seven miles from Calder for a five-furlong workout Plesa timed in 1:00.60.
The workout was not officially recorded by track clockers, but would have equaled the second fastest time among 38 timed workouts at the distance.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Hot-riding Felipe Valdez, who has scarcely slowed down since riding seven winners here on Dec. 23, may hold the key to Sunday's featured ninth race at Portland Meadows.
Valdez has been the regular rider for three of the top entrants in the feature, a mile race for older $2,500 claimers that has drawn a field of 10. It may be highly significant that Valdez winds up on Shy Boots, leaving the reins on Our C. C. and Oxford Circus to others.
The inaugural Great State Challenge, the new six-race event designed for the top horses of statebred programs, will be run on Dec. 7 this year, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced.
The NTRA had already selected Sam Houston Race Park in Houston, Texas, to host the inaugural event. Organizers said the Dec. 7 date was selected because of mild weather in Houston at that time of year and because most states hold their statebred championships in October, so a December date avoids many potential overlaps in scheduling.
The state chairman of Common Cause of Kentucky, a political watchdog group, has filed an ethics complaint against Churchill Downs, calling the racetrack company's recent donations of $15,500 to Kentucky legislators "damaging to the political process."
Richard Beliles, the chairman, filed the complaint on his own behalf, he said Friday. The filing is expected to trigger an investigation by the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission, which would not comment on the complaint on Friday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There is plenty of turmoil in the field for Sunday's Grade 3 San Miguel, a six-furlong stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.
Two of the six entrants - Royal Moro and Bring Jung - are in the process of being sold. Another, Distinction, is a five-start maiden who cost $4.2 million. The other three - Expected Program, Popular, and Roman Dancer - enter the San Miguel off abysmal efforts at short prices.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - What a difference a year makes.
A year ago, jockey Shaun Bridgmohan was watching his mounts win races at Aqueduct while he was at home nursing a punctured lung and four broken ribs suffered in a Dec. 23 spill that sidelined him until Jan. 26.
Twelve months later, Bridgmohan, 22, is riding up a storm at the Big A's inner track meet.
Through Friday's card, Bridgmohan has booted home 23 winners from 129 mounts and is third in the standings. Bridgmohan only trails the leader, apprentice Lorenzo Lezcano, by four wins.
