Trainer Linda Rice looks like she might have a good one in Mr. Numbers, a grass runner who is 2 for 3 since making his career debut in April.
Fifteen days after winning a first-level grass allowance at Monmouth Park by 2 3/4 lengths, Mr. Numbers steps into stakes company for the first time in Saturday's $60,000 Humphrey S. Finney at Pimlico.
Rice also entered Flying Numbers, who is coupled with Mr. Numbers in the 1 1/8-mile Finney for Maryland-bred 3-year-olds on the turf.
OCEANPORT, N.J. ? It is remarkable that Personal First is still living, that he is still racing. It is even more remarkable that he is one of the top contenders in Saturday's $75,000 Longfellow Stakes.
Personal First, a 4-year-old son of Personal Hope, looked to be on the road to the Breeders' Cup Sprint last summer. Sent off at 11-1, he won the Grade 3 Amsterdam at Saratoga versus top 3-year-old sprinters Disco Rico and Trippi. Two races later, he ran a huge Beyer Speed Figure of 110 to place in the $300,000 Smile Sprint Handicap for 3-year-olds and up at Calder.
FORT ERIE, Ont. - Although Danny Poliziani has saddled just four winners so far this year, his horses have been running well as usual, and the barn has had a tidy 47 percent of its runners finish in the money heading into Sunday's program at Fort Erie.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The lawyer representing trainer Bob Baffert said on Thursday that he will go to Superior Court on Friday to seek a temporary restraining order against the California Horse Racing Board, allowing Baffert to appeal a 60-day suspension he was given last weekend for a morphine positive.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The three horses trainer Chris Block saddled in last year's Prairie State Festival finished first, first, and second. All three, plus a new shooter, are back this year, which means Block could have another big day at Arlington on Saturday.
Besides Reno Rumble, runner-up in last year's Cardinal Handicap, Block also has Davey's Cutlass for the White Oak and Ioya Two for the Lincoln Heritage, both defending champions, and the 3-year-old filly Surprise Me Again in the Purple Violet.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The Abe Lincoln look-alike and the medieval jousters sparring at the sixteenth pole aside, it is the six stakes for Illinois-bred racehorses that form the backbone of Saturday's Prairie State Festival at Arlington Park. There is nothing sideshow-like about $450,000 in purse money and the six stakes, each worth $75,000, feature large, competitive, and bettable fields.
Reigning world champion A Ransom makes his 2001 debut Saturday in the Grade 1 $150,000 Spencer Childers Handicap, which highlights the talent-laden California Champions Night at Los Alamitos.
The 400-yard Childers is one of eight graded stakes - with $814,000 in purses for California-breds - on the card.
While the program is billed for California champions, it brings out many of the sport's national champions. In addition to A Ransom, the card will have:
* 2000 champion 3-year-old gelding Chicks First Policy in the Spencer Childers.
It looks like Burning Roma will finally get a chance to show how he rates against the top 3-year-old colts in the country.
After months of facing second- and third-tier competition, Burning Roma could be tested against the cream of his crop early in the Saratoga meet.
Trainer Anthony Dutrow is leaning toward running Burning Roma, a 9 3/4-length winner of last weekend's $200,000 Leonard Richards Stakes at Delaware Park, in the Grade 1, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes on Aug. 4.
MIAMI - Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. appears to have the upper hand coming into Saturday's $50,000 Office Queen Stakes at Calder, where he will send out the uncoupled pair of Wander Mom and Sara's Success against 10 rivals in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies.
Wander Mom and Sara's Success have already accounted for seven turf victories between them while the rest of the field combined has only won nine races on grass.
The California Horse Racing Board issued on Wednesday the complete text of its ruling that trainer Bob Baffert should be suspended for 60 days because of the result of a positive test for a trace level of morphine found in one of his starters at Hollywood Park in May 2000.
The CHRB on Tuesday denied a request by Baffert, and his attorney, Neil Papiano, to stay the 60-day suspension, though Papiano said he will appeal the CHRB's denial in court.