JAMAICA, N.Y. - The New York Racing Association reported gains in daily average ontrack and total handle for 2001, which was capped by a strong Aqueduct fall meet.
Daily average total handle was up 6 percent during the 257-day season to $10,747,635. Daily average ontrack increased 4 percent in 2001 to $2,055,579. Last year, 258 days were run.
Daily average attendance in 2001 was nearly even with 2000, with an average of 9,558 in 2001, compared with 9,573.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - As maintenance workers scurried between raindrops Wednesday afternoon to spruce up Gulfstream Park's plant for Thursday's opening, officials in the racing office sat next to phones that did not ring. Entries for Friday's 10-race card - the second day of the Gulfstream meet - did not close until after 5:30 p.m., hours later than normal.
ARCADIA, Calif. - After Siphonic's crisp five-furlong work Wednesday at Hollywood Park, trainer David Hofmans gave the green light for the Grade 2 Santa Catalina Stakes on Jan. 13. "He worked great, he went off real slow, then went [11:40 seconds] the last eighth and galloped out in 1:14." Clockers gave Siphonic 1:01.40, breezing. It was Siphonic's first recorded work since he won the Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 15.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Affirmed Success, a horse who isn't normally associated with winter racing in New York, showed up in Saturday's Aqueduct entries in a $56,000 classified allowance race.
*, a Grade 1 winner and top-class performer on dirt and turf at distances up to a mile, is one of seven older horses entered in the mile-and-70-yard race.
If Affirmed Success, an 8-year-old, runs well, there could be future inner track starts in his future, according to trainer Richard Schosberg.
NEW ORLEANS - There was an oddity on the Fair Grounds backstretch Thursday morning - ice.
A rare hard freeze in New Orleans on Wednesday night canceled training at Fair Grounds on Thursday morning, and with similar temperatures forecast for Thursday night, training could be lost on Friday, as well. Nobody's panicking yet, but a long cold snap would compromise the schedules trainers have set for their horses.
"I think everybody's been pretty understanding," said Fair Grounds director of racing Mervin Muniz. "I haven't heard any complaints."
ALBANY, Calif. - Lil Sister Stich was a bit of a disappointment in Southern California early in her career. But time, a move to northern California, and, perhaps most importantly, a switch to the turf have her fulfilling her potential.
As a result, the 5-year-old Lil Sister Stich will be the likely favorite in Saturday's $100,000 Work the Crowd Handicap at Golden Gate Fields. The race, for Cal-bred fillies and mares, will be run at one mile on the turf course.
Aloha Bold, who is perfect in four career starts, will get a class test Saturday night when he steps into stakes company for the first time in the $50,000 Sam Houston Sprint Handicap at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.
The seven-furlong race has drawn an accomplished field of 12, including Captain Countdown, the defending champ and starting highweight; Boots on Sunday, who is looking to rebound from a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 De Francis Memorial Dash; and Louisiana stakes winners Oak Hall and Two Punch Sonny.
While Murray Johnson plans to spend another cold winter at the Trackside training complex in Louisville, he still might make it to one of the warmer racing outposts in the next couple of months.
It all depends on how a highly promising 3-year-old named Perfect Drift progresses.
"He's the real deal, no doubt about it," said Johnson, a native of Australia who has been a Kentucky regular for the last decade or so. "He just doesn't have the seasoning right now, so it didn't make sense to take him anywhere."
PHOENIX - As he read down the entries for Saturday's $30,000 Kokopelli Handicap, trainer Kevin Lewis had to like what he saw. It seemed he had a stranglehold on the Kokopelli, a one-mile turf race for 4-year-olds and up, with his strong entry of Eagleton and Bristolville.