NEW ORLEANS - Ask about anyone on the Fair Grounds backstretch which trainer is set up for a blockbuster meet here and one name keeps surfacing: Steve Asmussen.
Tom Amoss, the eight-time leading trainer here who tied with Asmussen for last year's title, summed up the situation. "He's got tremendous quality in his stable, and he's got numbers," Amoss said. "He's going to be tough to beat."
NEW ORLEANS - The notion that Fair Grounds is a desirable place to train a horse during the winter has attained common currency among horsemen throughout the country. Between the good vibe the track gives off and Hialeah Park's closure cutting into the number of available stalls in south Florida this year, Fair Grounds will launch what should be an especially strong meet Thursday, with an infusion of new stables bolstering a horse population that has been gaining quality for several years.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The distance of the Cigar Mile might not be ideal for Graeme Hall, but the race's Grade 1 rating holds a significant attraction for the horse's connections.
*, who is expected to race again next year, has won three Grade 2 races, the Jim Dandy, Arkansas Derby, and Eclipse, and the Grade 3 Stuyvesant. But a Grade 1 victory has eluded him.
The holidays are a time to be spent with loved ones, but this week, Gander is going to have to go it alone. He will have to leave his steady companion, Heather's Promise, back at Belmont Park, and venture to the wilds of Kentucky all by his lonesome. Time to buck up.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Led by an international cast of stars featuring Breeders' Cup runner-ups Forbidden Apple and Spook Express* (click here for lifetime PP's), and such highly regarded stakes runners as Aldebaran, El Cielo, Golden Apples, Irish Prize, Janet, Starine, Startac, Swept Overboard, Tranquility Lake, and Western Pride, Hollywood Park's Autumn Turf Festival promises to offer some of its best racing in years.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Fonz's, the winner of Saturday's Hollywood Prevue Stakes* (click here for chart), is the latest horse owned by David LaCroix's Meadowbrook Farms Inc. who was named for a restaurant.
Most of the horses LaCroix races are sold if they do well enough, such as Meetyouathebrig, named for a restaurant near Del Mar. But Fonz's remained with LaCroix after a potential sale this summer fell through because, LaCroix said, Fonz's did not pass a veterinary exam performed by the potential buyer.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The familiar faces are tired and worn, stuck at this first-condition allowance level for months. In these circumstances, it is tempting to go searching for a newcomer, and in Wednesday's featured seventh race at Hollywood Park, it just might pay off.
MIAMI - Mr. Pleasentfar and Best of the Rest should give the home team its strongest one-two punch in the turf and dirt handicap divisions in recent memory when the south Florida-based horses make their next starts in major stakes at the end of the Tropical-at-Calder meeting.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Judging by Voodoo's* (click here for lifetime PP's) monster return to the races in his last start, it wouldn't be crazy to run him in Saturday's Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. But it wouldn't be prudent either.
With that in mind, trainer Jimmy Jerkens has elected to run Voodoo back in Thursday's $100,000, Grade 2 Fall Highweight Handicap at six furlongs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The narrow margin that separated Unbridled Elaine and Spain on the finish line in the Breeders' Cup Distaff is reflected in the weight assignments for the $250,000 Falls City Handicap, the Thursday race that should provide a dramatic rematch of the two standout fillies.
