LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - The list of consecutive winners of the Champion of Champions, which will be run for the 30th time on Sunday at Los Alamitos in Orange County, Calif., is one of the most elite in Quarter Horse Racing.
Dash for Cash was a repeat winner in 1976-77, Refrigerator won three times, 1992-94, and SLM Big Daddy was the most recent to repeat in 1997-98.
On Sunday, A Ransom will be favored to join that group, facing a top-class field of older horses in the 440-yard test.
Most horses have to wait for their retirement to be recognized with a day in their honor. Not Xtra Heat, who will be feted at her Laurel Park homebase on Saturday.
Xtra Heat, second in the Breeders' Cup Sprint and a winner of 17 races from 22 starts, will be paraded following the fifth race and then will pose for photographs in the winner's circle.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Triple Crown build-up in California begins in earnest Saturday with the $460,750 Hollywood Futurity at Hollywood Park, the last major stakes of 2001 for juveniles.
With three runners from the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in the eight-horse field - Siphonic, Publication, and Officer, who were third through fifth - the Grade 1 Futurity is a vital test for Kentucky Derby prospects. By sundown on Saturday, the rankings of California's prospects will be clearer.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Peeping Tom and Say Florida Sandy were on a tear earlier this year, but both of the sprinters have some atoning to do for a series of recent losses.
Despite their dry spells, * top a field of six in Saturday's $100,000-added Gravesend Handicap at Aqueduct.
Say Florida Sandy, a winner of two of the last three Gravesends, is coupled in the wagering with Run Kush Run, a front-runner who should keep the pace honest for his entrymate, a stalker.
NEW ORLEANS - Trainers were breaking down the doors Thursday to run their 3-year-old fillies in an age-restricted race on Saturday. The $100,000 Pago Hop, one of the last stakes races of the season for 3-year-old fillies, drew an overflow field of 19 when entries were taken Thursday at Fair Grounds.
Fourteen of those horses will be permitted to start Saturday, a number that will further dwindle if the Pago Hop, scheduled for about one mile on turf, is moved to the main track because of rain.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Tranquility Lake and Feverish will gang up on the opposition in Saturday's $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood Park.
A strongly favored entry, Tranquility Lake and Feverish have running styles that complement each other. Both will be trying to use the race to rebound from disappointing performances this fall.
In the Grade 2 Bayakoa, run over 1 1/16 miles, they face seven others, including Starrer, who was fifth in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Belmont Park on Oct. 27; and Cee Dreams, the winner of the California Cup Matron.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Bobby Frankel fussed when he saw that Heads Will Roll will carry highweight of 117 pounds in Saturday's $150,000 Dahlia Handicap at Hollywood Park. But, his 3-year-old filly did not earn that status by accident.
Victories in a division of the Grade 3 Pebbles Handicap at Belmont Park on Oct. 14 and the Matiara Stakes here on Nov. 10 showed that Heads Will Roll is in outstanding form.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Lethal Grande will be a short price to win Saturday's $26,010 Os West Oregon Futurity, the richest of five stakes on the Oregon-bred Day card at Portland Meadows.
More than $80,000 will be up for grabs on the 11-race program, which includes four starter handicap races, a maiden special weight race, and a claiming race as well as the stakes. All are restricted to statebreds.
NEW ORLEANS - Asher, a 4-year-old graded stakes-winning filly, died Tuesday in Kentucky. * had been showing signs of colic and underwent surgery, during which severe adhesions in her stomach were discovered. She was euthanized while still under anesthesia.
Trainer Ron Moquett, who trained Asher for Pepper Tree Farm, said Asher had been scheduled to ship to Fair Grounds on Friday. Asher, who made her last start in the Arlington Matron Handicap, was in Kentucky to get a breather from racing when she fell ill.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Trainer Tino Attard got his inner track meet off on the right foot by winning with his first starter of the meet on Wednesday.
Fox Me Not ($12) won a maiden claiming race and is one of the nearly 30 horses Attard brought to New York from Canada for owner Frank Stronach after the conclusion of the Woodbine meet earlier this month.
The Attard horses are bedded down at Belmont Park in trainer Joe Orseno's barn. Orseno, who trains Stronach's New York division, brought his stock to Gulfstream Park for the winter.
