NEW ORLEANS - It is good for Louisiana breeders, good for Louisiana owners, and good for Louisiana racing in general. And Louisiana Champions Day is good for bettors everywhere. Horseplayers clamoring for large, bettable fields will find their cups overflowing on Saturday at Fair Grounds, where 116 horses have been entered on a 10-race smorgasbord of statebred racing.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. - On Monday, Anthony Spadea saw Jini's Jet, the promising 3-year-old Massachusetts-bred colt he owns in partnership with Christine Wallace, prance home the easiest kind of winner at 1-10 in the $25,000 Massachusetts Derby. On Saturday, Spadea will again own a strong favorite in a Mass-bred stakes race as My Honeychild, the 2-year-old filly he owns in partnership with Joel K. Logan, looks to make her record 2 for 2 in the $25,000 Amelia Peabody Stakes.
NEW ORLEANS - Coach Rags won the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf two years ago, the mare Sarah Lane's Oates won the race last year, and both horses are part of a 12-horse field entered in this year's Turf. But there may be a new boss in town, L'homme, a 3-year-old colt who will attempt to win the Turf coming off an eight-month layoff.
PHOENIX - The one time Mistakenly Special showed up at Turf Paradise he was special indeed. Now he returns to the site of possibly the finest performance of his career, and again things look in his favor Saturday when he carries high weight against nine others in the $30,000 Cactus Wren Handicap.
The 6 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up, bred in Arizona, is almost identical in circumstances to the Grand Canyon Handicap here on April 7, when Mistakenly Special romped by 6 3/4 lengths in a dazzling display of sustained speed.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Horse-for-course players will be in a quandary Friday when it comes to handicapping Aqueduct's feature, a $56,000 classified allowance race for fillies and mares at nine furlongs.
Both Strolling Belle (3 for 4) and Stop for Schnapps (3 for 5) have shown an affinity for Aqueduct's inner track that makes them the main contenders in a highly-contentious allowance event, which serves as a prep for the $100,000 Ladies Handicap on Dec. 22.
NEW ORLEANS - Littleexpectations made a splash at Fair Grounds two seasons ago. District did the same thing last year. But when District and Littleexpectations meet in Friday's Fair Grounds feature it will be in a $38,000 sprint allowance, with both horses in need of a revitalizing race.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Despite having lost her first eight starts, Sehra began sending positive signals to trainer Simon Bray at the end of the Del Mar meeting.
Three months later, Sehra has won two races in a row and will try for a third in a $46,000 optional claimer at Hollywood Park on Friday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Concern about the condition of the Hollywood Park turf course has led two trainers to point their top-class fillies and mares to the Bayakoa Handicap on Dec. 15 instead of the Dahlia Handicap on turf the same day.
Tout Charmant, a multiple stakes winner who has not run on dirt since June 1999, and Starrer, who was fifth in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Belmont Park on Oct. 27, are being pointed for the Bayakoa. Both the Bayakoa and Dahlia are run over 1 1/16 miles and are worth $150,000.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Two stakes have been added to the 2002 stakes schedule at Churchill Downs and purses have been increased for three Kentucky Derby weekend stakes.
As always, the highlight of the stakes schedule, which was released Wednesday, is the Kentucky Derby. The 128th running will be held May 4.
