ALBANY, Calif. - A plan by Golden Gate Fields to run 10-race cards Saturday, Sunday, and Monday has run into criticism from the Thoroughbred Owners of California and California Thoroughbred Trainers. As a result, Monday's card will have only nine races.
Championships are on the line in three Grade 1 Quarter Horse stakes closing weekend at Los Alamitos.
On Friday night, the top two qualifiers in the Grade 1, $154,350 Southern California Derby are trained by by Donna McArthur.
On Saturday, trainer John Bassett will have four juveniles in the Grade 1, $1,256,000 Los Alamitos Million, Quarter Horse racing's second-richest race.
On Sunday, the 2001 world championship will be on the line in the Grade 1, $500,000 Champion of Champions, the sport's most prestigious and richest race for older runners.
It has been just over four months since Dean Kutz returned from a life-threatening illness to his lifelong profession as a jockey. He has won 16 races, an average of only four a month, but Kutz could not be happier.
"I'm feeling good, and I've had no problems to speak of," said Kutz. "It's been as good as I could've hoped for."
NEW ORLEANS - Touch Tone, the outstanding 3-year-old who launched his career with a huge training race win at Fair Grounds last winter, is recuperating from surgery at Squaw Creek Farm in Weatherford, Texas, and is about a month away from a resumption of training.
Trainer Ronnie Werner, saddling training-race horses at Fair Grounds on Wednesday, said he had just returned from a visit to Squaw Creek. "He's looking good," said Werner.
Trainer John McKee gave jockey Jesus Sanchez his choice of three horses to ride in last Saturday's St. Nick Stakes at Charles Town. Without hesitation, Sanchez was about to select Kris Taylor. McKee, however, convinced him to ride Cloudy Mist.
Fortunately for Sanchez, he listened to the trainer. Kris Taylor could do no better than fourth. Cloudy Mist capped a 2-year-old season in which he won races at three tracks and four distances with a three-quarter length victory in the $40,000 St. Nick, contested at seven furlongs over a sloppy track.
The three-week break in the action at Mountaineer Park might prove most beneficial to sprinter Jeanies Rob.
Normally, Mountaineer schedules prep races two weeks before its stakes. But with no live racing from Dec. 4 through Christmas Day, the six-furlong allowance prep for the $55,000 Christmas Handicap on Dec. 26 was held Dec. 3.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - He has gone from the biggest cinch in racing to the biggest question. Officer was an effortless winner of the first five starts of his career, but he has suffered defeats in both the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and, one week later, the California Cup Juvenile, leaving his reputation frayed, if not in tatters.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Considering the time of year and the day of the week, the second Thursday card of Aqueduct's inner-dirt track winter meet came up relatively strong.
There are only two claiming races on the program, and the pick four on the last four races of the afternoon begins with a maiden special-weight sprint that contains some regally bred 2-year-olds, and concludes with three straight allowance races.
Are we sure this isn't one of those non-stakes Thursdays at Saratoga?
NEW ORLEANS - If Beloved by All loves turf, Thursday's Fair Grounds feature will be all over.
With scary speed and the rail on a course that has promoted front-runners in one-turn races, Beloved by All doesn't have to be a turf specialist - she just has to get a grip on the surface.
