ALBANY, Calif. - Saturday's Golden Gate Derby may eventually be considered one of the most significant races ever run at Golden Gate Fields.
A field of six 3-year-olds entered the $125,000, 1 1/16-mile, Grade 3 race.
While the race has produced one Kentucky Derby winner, Real Quiet in 1998, it's significance Saturday comes from a stewards' ruling that will allow three horses trained by Jerry Hollendorfer to run as three individual entrants rather than one coupled entry.
NEW ORLEANS - Round three of five in the Fair Grounds sprint stakes division comes up Saturday. A few fresh challengers were rounded up, but the heavy hitters remain the same. Bonapaw, Abajo, and a revitalized *, players in sprint stakes here for the last several seasons, renew their rivalry in the $75,000 Colonel Power Handicap.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Megahertz did not make a favorable first impression in Wednesday's $76,300 Blue Norther Stakes.
She spotted the other seven 3-year-old fillies a few lengths after a slow start, surprising jockey Alex Solis.
"She stood there and after a second I said, 'Let's go,' " Solis said.
Megahertz got the message. Closing from as far as eight lengths off the pace, Megahertz squeezed her way between fillies in the stretch to win her U.S. debut by 1 1/4 lengths.
TORONTO - Woodbine will be lowering its takeout on foreign simulcast pools for exacta and daily double wagering by 1 percent to 20.6 percent, effective Jan. 15.
The total takeout on exacta and double wagering, which additionally includes a 0.5 percent slice for the provincial government, 0.8 percent tax for the federal government, and a 2 percent levy for the local horsemen, now will be 23.9 percent.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Churchill Downs and the city of Louisville have asked the newly created Office of Homeland Security for special security status for the 128th Kentucky Derby on May 4, track officials said Thursday.
If approved, the Derby would become just the third sporting event to be granted special event status, following the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, both to be held next month.
The request, which was prompted primarily by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, also includes two accompanying Derby events, the Kentucky Oaks and downtown Pegasus Parade.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The Affectionately Handicap was so popular with horsemen that when entry time for the Grade 3 arrived on Thursday morning the entry box overfilled.
Thirteen fillies and mares entered Saturday's $100,000-added Affectionately at Aqueduct, with starting status granted to the top 12 highweights. Miss Splash and Tsuyo were both assigned 109 pounds, but Miss Splash won the tiebreaker with more money won, so Tsuyo landed on the also-eligible list.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Red and Linda Smith had a good reason for staying at a yearling sale in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1999 after being outbid for the horse they wanted.
"I had an empty spot in the trailer," Red Smith said.
Smith, one of western Canada's top trainers, combed the catalog in search of another prospect. He found one, paying $2,148 for a Manitoba-bred with modest breeding.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It would be hard to blame trainer Frank Alexander for believing he's due to have a little good luck come his way this season with Windsor Castle.
Windsor Castle was among the more promising 3-year-olds on the Kentucky Derby trail here last winter. But those hopes were quickly dashed when illness forced Alexander to take him out of training in January and, as a result, out of the Triple Crown picture.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The weather in New York this winter has been far from ferocious, something that pleases trainer Pat Kelly as he prepares his stakes winner Evening Attire for his 4-year-old debut in the $100,000-added Aqueduct Handicap on Jan. 19.
On Thursday, an unusually balmy morning, Kelly sat in his Belmont Park office and said training a horse in New York during the winter is difficult if Mother Nature doesn't cooperate.
For Gary Montgomery, just being part of a stakes race might be enough of a thrill.
Montgomery, 51, has held a trainer's license since 1998 after having worked extensively in the Quarter Horse business and for several years as an assistant to Thoroughbred trainers Paul McGee and Ken McPeek.
On Saturday, Montgomery will run a horse in a stakes for the first time when he saddles Show Me the Wire in the $50,000 Wishing Well Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.