NEW ORLEANS - You can hardly turn around in the Dallas Stewart barn these days without running into a stakes horse.
Stewart went down the Kentucky Derby trail with Dollar Bill here last season and won the Breeders' Cup Distaff this fall with Unbridled Elaine, who trained here last winter. Both those horses will again spend the winter in New Orleans, and are part of the reason Stewart should be active in several stakes divisions during the meet.
NEW ORLEANS - Fair Grounds track-record holder *, who has made only two starts since June, has been entered in the $60,000 Dr. A.B. Leggio Memorial Handicap on Saturday at Fair Grounds.
Her entry in the Leggio came as something of a surprise, since Louisiana Champions Day is to be held here in one week. Champions Day features the $100,000 Sprint, where Hallowed Dreams, the Fair Grounds track record holder at six furlongs, would be heavily favored.
A group of local investors has a preliminary agreement in place to purchase Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., confirmed Ray Tromba, the track's executive vice president and general manager, on Thursday.
Louisiana Downs, after a lengthy legislative process, was awarded a gaming license in March, and is constructing a slots casino on the first floor of its grandstand.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Country Be Gold has been about as consistent as owner Barry Seinfeld and trainer Steven Kappes could have hoped when they plucked him out of a dispersal sale for $150,000 in the fall of 2000.
In 14 starts since the purchase, Country Be Gold has a record of 3-2-5 and has earned a check in all but one start. In that span, he has earned $295,590.
After running against some of the best horses in training lately, Country Be Gold may be in line for his - and his trainer's - first stakes victory, in Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When the lengthy Woodbine meeting grinds to a close here late Sunday afternoon the majority of the local trainers will be taking a bit of a breather, knowing that the Feb. 1 opening of the training track will come all too soon.
But for others, like Sandy McPherson, the beat goes on, and on.
Heading into Friday's card, McPherson had sent out 19 winners and 58 in-the-money finishers from 115 starters at this meeting, good for purse earnings of $825,173.
A change in pace tactics may help Gold Nugget, the reigning Texas-bred of the Year, turn the tables on Chauffe Au Rouge in Saturday night's $50,000 Richard King Handicap at Sam Houston Race Park.
The 1 1/8-mile turf race is one of eight statebred stakes that will make up the ninth annual Texas Champions Day.
Gold Nugget and Chauffe Au Rouge met last in the $100,000 Texas Hall of Fame Stakes at Retama Park on Oct. 6. Gold Nugget set a pressured pace in that race, which went in course-record time, before being overtaken in the stretch by Chauffe Au Rouge.
The sprint-to-route angle works like magic for Lights on Broadway.
Trainer C.W. "Bubba" Cascio has used the formula to win two of the three richest Texas-bred stakes offered in the last year with the colt, who is set to defend his title in the $100,000 Star of Texas Stakes on Saturday night at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.
The 1 1/16-mile race is one of eight statebred stakes that will make up the ninth annual Texas Champions Day card, which also features the open-company $150,000 Texan Juvenile. Together, the nine stakes are worth $625,000.
PHOENIX, Ariz. - She's a good-sized fish in the big pond of Southern California. So when Grade 1-caliber Alexine surfaces at Turf Paradise for Saturday's $75,000 Queen of the Green Handicap she will look Jaws. Still, with a hefty chunk of change on the line, the mile turf race for fillies and mares drew a field of 11, though there's little doubt Alexine is the one to beat.
MIAMI - Trainer Todd Pletcher has been on fire in New York over the past couple of weeks. On Saturday he figures to keep his hot streak alive in south Florida when he sends out Finality against 11 other 2-year-olds in Calder's $100,000 Mecke Stakes, which shares top billing with its filly counterpart the $100,000 Hollywood Wildcat Stakes on the 14-race program.
Last Saturday at Aqueduct, Pletcher sent out Left Bank and Graeme Hall to finish one-two in the Cigar Mile, Smok'n Frolic to win the Demoiselle Stakes, and Nokoma to run second in the Remsen.
ANDERSON, Ind. - Hoosier Park closes out its stakes schedule with a pair of races for Indiana-bred 2-year-old colts and geldings.
A field of 12 Indiana-breds will start in the $30,000 South Bend Stakes at one mile, which is carded as the fourth race on an 11-race card. In the ninth race, a field of eight colts and geldings sired by Indiana-registered stallions go six furlongs in the $40,000 Indiana Stallion Stakes.