INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The proposed Del Mar match race with Kona Gold has been called off, but Caller One will have no easy time of it in the near future.
In the Grade 2, seven-furlong Triple Bend Handicap on Sunday at Hollywood Park, Caller One will face serious heat from 3-year-old speedball Squirtle Squirt. Regardless, trainer Jim Chapman assured that 126-pound highweight Caller One would start.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Ten months and six starts after a wonderful debut here at Arlington Park, the filly Applesolutely continues her slow evolution into a turf stakes horse.
Inconsistency and immaturity have marred her development, but Applesolutely remains an unusually talented filly who still can become something special. An authoritative win in Thursday's seventh race would bring her closer to stakes competition.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - There in the national trainer standings through June 24, right above a guy named Bill Mott, is Ralph Martinez, 24, who trains at tiny Fairmount Park and has already amassed 69 wins this season. Martinez leads the Fairmount standings by 23 winners and has plundered Chicago purses all year, often driving his own stock the four-plus hours between Collinsville, Ill., and Chicago.
At Sportsman's Park this spring, Martinez did so well - winning nine races from 27 starters - that the lone owner for whom he trains, Lou O'Brien, won the owner's title.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Serena's Tune, a daughter of Mr. Prospector and champion Serena's Song, was recently transferred to trainer Josie Carroll's Woodbine barn.
Serena's Tune, a $1 million yearling purchase, won her debut impressively at Del Mar last August for trainer Neil Drysdale. She captured two consecutive turf sprints during the winter at Santa Anita, including the La Habra Stakes, but is coming off two straight dull efforts - in the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn and the one-mile Edgewood Stakes on the grass at Churchill Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Swept Away, who won nine of 16 starts and over $550,000, has been retired after coming out of the May 12 Genuine Risk Stakes at Belmont with an injury.
"She developed a problem with a sesamoid following the Genuine Risk," said Richard Klein, who owns Swept Away with his parents, Bert and Elaine. "Instead of giving her time off and bringing her back, we decided to go ahead and retire her."
Klein said that Swept Away, by Mystery Storm, would be bred to a "top, proven sire" next year. A
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Talike and Icy Flirt are leading contenders in a $37,000 first-level allowance for fillies and mares going six furlongs Thursday at Monmouth Park.
Talike will be making her third career start for trainer Alan Goldberg and owner Robert Masterson. She won her debut at Delaware Park, then came up a half-length short in an allowance race. In that race she was defeated by Astrid, who may be headed for stakes races later this season. Talike will be ridden by Joe Bravo, who started the week in his familiar place atop the jockeys standings with 26 wins.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Bad horses, bad rides, bad karma. Whatever the case, a handful of high-profile trainers are having a bad time of it at Belmont Park this year.
Phil Johnson (0 for 32), Shug McGaughey (0 for 31), Joe Orseno (0 for 17), and Mike Hushion (1 for 26) are a combined 1 for 106 through the first seven weeks of the meet. Add John Kimmel's current 0-for-20 funk and horsemen and handicappers alike are left shaking their heads.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Dignitas Dancer, who was nipped at the wire at 26-1 in the $300,000 Dallas Turf Cup, could make his next start against statebreds on dirt in the $150,000 Assault Stakes at Lone Star Park on Saturday, said trainer Dallas Keen.
The Assault is one of six stakes worth a cumulative $650,000 on Saturday that will make up the first Stars of Texas Day. Other races scheduled include the $100,000 Allen Bogan Memorial, and both divisions of the $150,000 estimated Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It was back to work Monday morning for Beautiful Pleasure, who returned to the track just 41 hours after finishing last in Saturday's Grade 1 Hempstead Handicap at Belmont Park.
Normally, horses get two or three days off after a race. But, Beautiful Pleasure jogged a mile and lightly galloped another mile under Donna Ward, trainer John Ward's wife and assistant.
"I got a jump on her calorie count and we're going to stay in front of it,"' trainer John Ward said.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Jorge Chavez helped trainer Paul Duhon pull off one of the biggest wins of his young career Friday night in the final race of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association All-Star Jockey Championship at Lone Star Park.
Chavez guided Bodacious Bubba, a $15,000 claiming horse, to win a wide open $55,000 starter allowance race over several regional stakes horses at 21-1. Finishing second was Pesky Rascal, who with his placing helped his rider, Jerry Bailey, win the four-race Jockey Championship by one point over Laffit Pincay Jr.