HOUSTON - Jeremiah Jack, five-length winner of last Saturday night's $150,000 Texan Juvenile at Sam Houston Race Park, is headed for the $100,000 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds in New Orleans on Jan. 26, said his trainer, Tom Amoss.
Amoss won the Lecomte in 1999 with Some Actor, who finished fifth in the 1998 running of the Texan Juvenile.
The last time Shane Laviolette was in serious contention for a riding title, he incurred one of the most wicked beats possible.
Laviolette led Mike Morgan by five winners atop the Hoosier Park standings going into the final program of the 1999 meet. Then Morgan went out and won six races while Laviolette was blanked.
"That was tough," Laviolette recalled wistfully.
NEW ORLEANS - Running short on grass, Testify is one of the better horses in the Midwest. Yet * is not even the best turf sprinter in his barn. That honor belongs to Morluc, perhaps one of the best turf sprinters in the world, judging from his showing last winter in a top-class race in Hong Kong.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Winter unofficially began this week with the opening of Aqueduct's inner-dirt track, but Thursday's card is fairly strong by December standards and contains several interesting races.
Foremost among them is the eighth, a second-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles that drew seven fillies and mares, headed by It All Adds Up.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - They had to beg and borrow in the Hollywood Park racing office on Tuesday morning to cobble together enough horses for both Thursday's feature race and the entire eight-race card.
Of the five horses entered in the second race, a starter allowance that carries a purse of $50,000, at least two had to be hustled to make the race go. But it was a struggle all morning. Only 58 horses are in the eight races, an average of 7 1/4 per race.
NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Corale "Bunky" Richards's big day at Louisiana Downs two months ago, when he won three of eight stakes races during a two-day festival of Louisiana-breds, remains fresh in his mind. Richards is in a position to do it again Saturday at Fair Grounds, with five horses to enter on Louisiana Champions Day.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Euchre was part of the first wave of horses who, beginning in early July, began trainer Bobby Frankel's stakes-winning march to a likely Eclipse Award as champion trainer this year. Euchre has been idle since his victory July 7 in the Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows, but he is making his return in Sunday's Grade 3, $100,000 Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Jeff Bonde and jockey Roberto Gonzalez cannot explain what happened the last time Great Quest ran at Golden Gate Fields, but they are confident he will do better in Thursday's $32,000 starter allowance feature.
After finishing last in his debut, Great Quest won his second start, a $20,000 maiden claimer. He won by six lengths going wire to wire, and Bonde moved him up to a $32,000 starter allowance race for his next start Nov. 9 at Golden Gate Fields.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - The temperature may indicate otherwise, but a sure sign that winter is on the horizon is the opening of Aqueduct's inner dirt track, which begins its 3 1/2-month run on Wednesday.
The one-mile oval is the smallest of the New York Racing Association's four dirt racing tracks. Yet, at 1,175 feet, the inner track's stretch is the longest of the NYRA dirt tracks. Still, with its tighter turns, a premium is placed on horses with tactical speed and inside post positions.
