It will be like old times Friday when Gary Contessa sends out nine horses on the 10-race program at Belmont Park.
“I haven’t had a day of entries like this in a long time,” said Contessa, New York’s leading trainer from 2006-09, including a record 159 victories in 2007.
Contessa reported that Rydilluc is over a minor foot bruise and on track for the inaugural running of the $500,000 Penn Mile for 3-year-olds June 1 at Penn National.
BALTIMORE – The talent Departing has shown in winning 4 of 5 career starts figures to make him the shortest price among the three newcomers joining the Triple Crown fray Saturday in the Grade 1, $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Govenor Charlie and Titletown Five are the only other members of the projected field of nine who did not run in the Kentucky Derby.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – For all that Rousing Sermon has accomplished he is light on career wins.
In 16 starts, Rousing Sermon has one stakes win (the 2011 California Cup Juvenile), finished second or third in seven stakes and earned $534,248. He won for the third time in his career in an optional claimer at Santa Anita on April 14 and will be favored to win another optional claimer at Betfair Hollywood Park on Friday.
If he succeeds, the 4-year-old colt may run in a major stakes this summer, possibly the $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 6.
BALTIMORE – For Patricia Cooksey, kicking down doors in the male-dominated world of riding was akin to the fight she faced back in 2001, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It was about as tough as battling 11 other male riders in a race,” she said. “The odds are always stacked against you. Sometimes, you just have to approach it like you do riding: Just pick up the reins, take a tight hold, and hold on.”
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – The $50,000 Lady Slipper Stakes for Minnesota-bred fillies and mares is shaping up to be a rematch of last year’s Minnesota Distaff Sprint, with the top five finishers locking horns again in the opening night six-furlong dirt dash.
Leading the way is Minnesota Distaff Sprint champion Polar Plunge, who will be making her 2013 debut. Early in her career the Cam Casby homebred liked to be on the early lead, but trainer Gary Scherer has been able to get her to rate and she should sit behind a contested early pace in the Lady Slipper.
BALTIMORE – The Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special on Friday appears to be a tale of two horses. Last Gunfighter has been in the zone since last fall and seeks his sixth straight win. Richard’s Kid, meanwhile, is attempting to recapture some of his former glory as a multiple Grade 1 winner and a $2.3 million earner.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Friday evening’s opening of the Canterbury Park meet begins the first full year of a cooperative marketing agreement between the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and the track. The impact of the agreement is being felt from the condition book to trackside.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Bob Tiller should be holding a strong hand in Friday’s Woodbine feature, when he runs Born to Be Queen and Tequilamockingbird in the six-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies.
Born to Be Queen was bet down to 4-5 when she debuted off some solid works in a five-furlong maiden special on opening day, April 20. She dropped back to an early trailing position before closing wide through the stretch to prevail by a neck, over a track that hindered speed.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – His image is not difficult to find in his hometown. There are the bigger-than-life statue, the stories-high wall mural, the encased jerseys with his signature, and so much more.
But Paul Hornung is not just a living legend in Louisville. As the 1956 Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame and a Pro Football Hall of Famer with the Green Bay Packers, he is a national treasure, a worldly man as familiar with the streets of New York or Baltimore as his birthplace in the hardscrabble Louisville neighborhood of Portland.
