OPELOUSAS. La. – What does an NFL quarterback who grew up in horse-rich Cajun country do when he retires? He goes to work at the racetrack, of course.
“I love it,” said Jake Delhomme, whose Carolina Panthers lost to the heavily favored New England Patriots, 32-29, in the Super Bowl following the 2003 regular season, his first with the team.
Delhomme owns and breeds horses and works as a bloodstock agent.
Seeking the Sherif is moving closer to a stakes appearance after winning his fourth consecutive race in an optional claimer last Friday.
Ridden by Edwin Maldonado, Seeking the Sherif led throughout the race over 6 1/2 furlongs, winning by 2 3/4 lengths in 1:15.73. The optional claimer was the longest race in the eight-race career of Seeking the Sherif, who was claimed for $12,500 last December.
“His confidence is sky high,” trainer Ron Ellis said.
Frank Mirahmadi will call the races at Santa Anita on Thursday, replacing a vacationing Trevor Denman.
Last weekend, Mirahmadi described his two-week position as Denman’s replacement “is the ultimate for me.”
“Trevor is my idol,” he said. “I learned everything from him. He’s helped me so much in my career. He’s given me so much advice.”
Milestones were reached recently at Golden Gate Fields, which concludes its winter-spring meeting this week.
Last Friday, jockey Frank Alvarado scored the 3,000th victory of his career as well as numbers 3,001 and 3,002 before being shaken up in a spill Saturday. Also on Saturday, Halo Dolly became a millionaire.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Had California Chrome finished off a Triple Crown sweep with a victory in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, he would have had the male 3-year-old championship locked up, and very likely Horse of the Year, too, even with more than six months to go in the calendar year.
Instead, both categories are still in play after California Chrome finished in a dead heat for fourth in the Belmont.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Paladin Bay, the likely favorite for this Sunday’s $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, recorded her final work for the race on the main track here Sunday, breezing five furlongs in 1:02.00 with jockey Gerry Olguin in the irons.
“She did it easy,” said trainer Harold Ladouceur. “She galloped out really well, too. That’s what I was looking for.”
Trainer Roger Attfield has three fillies on target for the Oaks – Llanarmon, Unspurned, and Storm Now – who all worked six furlongs Friday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – While his 50th birthday didn’t start off exactly how he had envisioned, trainer Mike De Paulo recorded his 50th career stakes win when Pender Harbour recovered from a slow start in Sunday’s $125,000 Steady Growth Stakes.
“We had started off with a bad day when Justin fell off,” De Paulo said. “But then Pender came through. He was something else.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – On Rainbow Bridge captured her third career stakes victory in Saturday’s $125,000 Lady Angela Stakes with a rail-skimming trip under jockey Skye Chernetz.
“She had a perfect trip,” said winning trainer Dave Cotey. “It got a little tight, and Skye had to move a little quicker than she wanted to, but it went perfect.”
On Rainbow Bridge was making her first start since September in the Lady Angela, but fitness wasn’t Cotey’s biggest concern coming into the race.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice had a successful weekend, winning Friday’s Grade 2 True North with Palace and Saturday’s $150,000 Easy Goer Stakes with Kid Cruz. Both horses likely will be pointed to races on the July 5 Stars and Stripes card at Belmont.
Palace is being pointed to the $400,000 Belmont Sprint Championship Invitational (formerly the James Marvin, run at Saratoga), and Kid Cruz is a candidate for the Grade 3, $200,000 Dwyer Stakes.
