NEW ORLEANS - Fair Grounds opens its 2001-2002 meet Thursday with perhaps the best colony of horses to stable here in years. The quality of racing in New Orleans has been ticking upward since purses began rising a decade ago, and with the addition this season of several top stables, racing should peak this winter.
"On paper, at least, it's the best group we've had," said track president Bryan Krantz.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Ceeband threatens to turn the Thanksgiving Day feature at Hollywood Park into a one-horse race.
Seven older horses entered the $100,000 On Trust Handicap for California-breds, including track specialist Grey Memo, but Ceeband's sharp current form and cocky attitude at trainer John Sadler's barn suggests he is a short price worth taking.
"He's unconscious right now, he's in a zone," assistant trainer Larry Benavidez said. "Ever since the start of last month, he's been mentally focused; he's got his game face on."
MIAMI - Cousin Gigi was bred in Kentucky, spent most of this season racing in New Jersey, and Thursday will be favored in Florida to win the $50,000 Georgia Peaches Handicap, a race restricted to the progeny of stallions donated to the Georgia Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders' Annual Stallion Season Auction.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - There will be no more wasted time for the Breeders' Cup Mile winner. After 18 months to heal a tendon injury, followed by a seven-month gap that ended with consecutive wins this fall, Val Royal has dived headlong into an ambitious fall campaign that continues - unexpectedly - Saturday at Hollywood Park.
Audix, a recent claim for $50,000 at Santa Anita, will try to make a quick return for his new connections in Thursday's featured fourth race at Golden Gate Fields.
The 1 1/16-mile, $32,000 allowance race for 3-year-olds will be contested over the Lakeside turf course.
Audix finished a game third in his last appearance in a mile grass race on Oct. 31. He was beaten just a length in a fast time of 1:34.69 and ships north to try this first level allowance group.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Include arrived at Churchill Downs in mid-morning Tuesday after an uneventful overnight van ride from Maryland and was bedded down in the barn of trainer Bill Mott, where he will reside until running Friday in the $400,000 Clark Handicap.
Include, trained by Grover "Bud" Delp, is the 120-pound highweight in a prospective field of nine in the Grade 2 Clark, the traditional highlight of the Churchill fall meet. Pat Day has the mount.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The thrill of winning his first Breeders' Cup race was so intense, said Dallas Stewart, that he "didn't even think about, before or after," at whose expense the victory came.
It came at the direct expense of D. Wayne Lukas, his boss for 11 years.
The race was the $2 million BC Distaff on Oct. 27 at Belmont Park. Spain, the defending champion, momentarily appeared to be a runaway winner for Lukas, but then Unbridled Elaine, trained by Stewart, came streaking from left field to snatch victory by a head.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It's a rare occurrence when a maiden $50,000 claimer can steal the spotlight.
But that's exactly what happened here at Woodbine last weekend when Classic Mike, a 2-year-old first-time starter, recorded a 13-length victory in last Saturday's fifth race.
NEW ORLEANS - Ask about anyone on the Fair Grounds backstretch which trainer is set up for a blockbuster meet here and one name keeps surfacing: Steve Asmussen.
Tom Amoss, the eight-time leading trainer here who tied with Asmussen for last year's title, summed up the situation. "He's got tremendous quality in his stable, and he's got numbers," Amoss said. "He's going to be tough to beat."
NEW ORLEANS - The notion that Fair Grounds is a desirable place to train a horse during the winter has attained common currency among horsemen throughout the country. Between the good vibe the track gives off and Hialeah Park's closure cutting into the number of available stalls in south Florida this year, Fair Grounds will launch what should be an especially strong meet Thursday, with an infusion of new stables bolstering a horse population that has been gaining quality for several years.