ELMONT, N.Y. - Last year the top four finishers from the Peter Pan, including the winner, Postponed, ran back in the Belmont Stakes.
After Saturday's $200,000 Peter Pan at Belmont Park, there will be a better line on who, if anybody, is headed to the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 9. But don't expect a stampede from the expected small Peter Pan field to the final leg of the Triple Crown.
MIAMI - Calder Race Course's personal goodwill ambassador, the amazing 8-year-old gelding Sir Bear, is ready to embark on yet another out of town excursion when he travels to Boston for the $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs on June 2.
Sir Bear has earned more than $2.2 million for owners Barbara and Al Smollin over his career, the majority of that money coming on the road.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Team West, made up of Corey Nakatani, Laffit Pincay Jr., Victor Espinoza, and Terry Thompson, defeated Team East (Pat Day, Jerry Bailey, Jorge Chavez, and Luis Quinonez) in the fourth annual Riding Cup on Monday at Prairie Meadows.
The Riding Cup, a three-race jockey challenge, began with the fifth race on the program. A jockey earned 1 point for his team by winning a race, 2 points for finishing second, and so on. The winner was the team with the fewest points.
MIAMI - The track bugler played taps as the field left the paddock for the 10th and final race on Tuesday's program at Hialeah, signifying not only the end of the 2001 meeting but perhaps the last race ever to be run at the historic oval. Barring a miracle in the state legislature next winter, Hialeah will not reopen again. Its final death knell will be sounded when the current bill regulating racing dates in Florida expires on June 30.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Hallowed Dreams worked five furlongs in a blazing 56 seconds Saturday at Evangeline Downs in preparation for her first start outside of Louisiana, which will come Monday in the $100,000 Valid Expectations Stakes at Lone Star Park.
The Valid Expectations, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, is one of seven stakes worth $1 million Monday at Lone Star. Billed as Lone Star Million Day, the card is topped by the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - In 1991, Craig McGurn, a struggling jockey, all but quit riding and took a full-time job as a truck driver. Now, 10 years later, McGurn is winning races again.
He isn't a leading rider. In fact, he is still driving a truck full time. But the 41-year-old McGurn is winning races at Golden Gate and Bay Meadows. He is 7 for 28 this year, with 4 seconds, and he's catching the eye of more and more trainers.
Despite having a job driving a truck, McGurn never gave up riding altogether.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - She's Grand, who finished second in the Fran's Valentine at Hollywood Park April 28, appears the one to beat when she drops into a second-level allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Bay Meadows on Thursday.
The Fran's Valentine was restricted to California-bred fillies and mares, but the purse was $175,000 and the winner was Rare Charmer, a Grade 2 winner as recently as February at Santa Anita.
AUBURN, Wash. - Emerald Downs will cut its overnight purses by 7 percent, effective with the condition book that begins on May 31.
In addition, the track has canceled plans to expand racing to five days a week in July and August. Seven Wednesday cards will be dropped: July 11, 18, and 25, and Aug. 1, 8, 15, and 22. The deletions mean the current meeting, which was scheduled for 96 days, will now end after 89 days of racing. It will be the shortest summer meeting ever run at Emerald Downs, which opened in 1996 with a 100-day season.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer David LaCroix has sold the promising 2-year-old filly Who Loves Aleyna, but a deal to sell 2-year-old Fonz's fell through. Fonz's, a gelding, will be favored for LaCroix when he makes his second career start Saturday at Hollywood Park in the $75,000 Willard Proctor Memorial Stakes.