ARCADIA, Calif. - Short on experience but long on raw ability, Fragrant Cloud has emerged as the favorite for the $125,000 California Cup Juvenile Fillies on Saturday at Santa Anita. There is good reason.
"I don't know if she has the experience of the other ones, but she's got talent," trainer Paco Gonzalez said, adding "I don't think the distance will be a problem."
ARCADIA, Calif. - With retirement a possibility at the end of the year, Feverish has a score to settle in Saturday's $150,000 California Cup Matron at Santa Anita.
Last year, Feverish and Queenie Belle dueled through the stretch in the Matron, which Queenie Belle won by a nose.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The milestones arrived in bunches for after his hard-fought victory in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park last weekend.
With a glowing and epic stretch run against Arc de Triomphe winner Sakhee, Tiznow became the first repeat and two-time winner of the nation's richest race, and the first reigning Horse of the Year to win the Classic. After two losses and a lengthy layoff, Tiznow's victory put him back in the running for a second award as Horse of the Year.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Four months ago, Ceeband beat Squirtle Squirt at odds of 44-1 in the Grade 2 Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Squirtle Squirt went on to win the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Belmont Park last weekend, while Ceeband spent the summer and early part of the fall successfully proving that the Triple Bend was not a fluke result.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The California Cup Mile would seem odd without Native Desert.
On Saturday, for the fourth consecutive year, Native Desert starts in the $175,000 California Cup Mile at Santa Anita. He is the likely favorite as the stronger half of an entry with Ringaskiddy, the winner of the Quicken Tree Stakes at Hollywood Park last spring.
Native Desert's form shows he is as sharp as he was when he finished third in the 1998 Mile, won the 1999 running, and finished a strong second in 2000. (He was also eighth in the 1997 Cal Cup Sprint).
ARCADIA, Calif. - Fourteen fillies and mares will scream down the hill in the $150,000 California Cup Distaff (race 6) on Saturday at Santa Anita, including a filly who enters the 6 1/2-furlong turf race as possibly the most profitable gamble on the Cal Cup card.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The decision by racing officials to move two of the three starter handicaps on Saturday's California Cup program from the main track to turf has resulted in larger fields than last year's.
The $50,000 Distaff Starter Handicap over 1 1/8 miles on turf is the day's first race and has drawn 11 entrants. Last year, the same race had seven starters. The $50,000 Starter Handicap over 1 1/4 miles on turf has 10 entrants in the fourth race compared to six starters last year.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Excessive Prayer, who won her maiden race in the Courtship Stakes, heads a contentious band of 10 2-year-old fillies entered in the $60,000-added Bam's Penny Stakes. The six-furlong sprint goes as the ninth race on Saturday's 10-race program.
Excessive Prayer finished second in the first two starts of her career. She was second in a maiden race at Sacramento in August after taking up sharply on the turn. She came back in another maiden race at Bay Meadows in September and again finished second.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - She has done it in Ohio. She has done it in Illinois. On Saturday, after two defeats in two starts at Churchill Downs, Joanies Bella will try to finally win a race in Kentucky as one of the favorites in the $100,000 Pocahontas Stakes.
STICKNEY, Ill. - A length here, a neck there, and Where's Taylor would be hailed as one of the best middle-distance turf horses in the country. What Where's Taylor has accomplished - eight wins and a $613,000 bankroll - is nothing to scoff at. But surely his connections can almost taste what might have been.