Bad Fast will be the 2-year-old Quarter Horse filly to beat at Los Alamitos in coming weeks.
Last Saturday, Bad Fast won her debut in a 300-yard maiden race by an eye-catching 3 1/4 lengths, in 15.54 seconds. The victory will make her a favorite in a division of the time trials for the Kindergarten Futurity on May 5, if owners Cesar Lopez and trainer Jim Hanson choose to run her in the first futurity of the year in Southern California.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine Entertainment Group, heading into Saturday’s opening day of the 2013 Thoroughbred meeting, is facing challenges like none it has ever faced before.
With the slots-at-racetracks program having expired March 31, Woodbine must deal with the loss of some $60 million in annual revenue, based on its 10 percent share of the proceeds from 3,000 machines here. The horsemen also received 10 percent, for purses.
ALTOONA, Iowa – With the local horse population reaching 1,000 on Wednesday as shippers from tracks such as Oaklawn Park and Sunland Park flow into town, Prairie Meadows is readying for the Friday evening opener of its Thoroughbred meet.
The 67-date meet, with racing conducted Thursdays to Sundays, runs through Aug. 10 and will offer average daily purses of just more than $230,000.
Fort Erie Racetrack, which will begin its 50-day meeting May 26, has made an application to the Ontario Racing Commission to run the Prince of Wales Stakes on a Tuesday rather than the Sunday that has been the norm for many years.
The proposed date would be July 30, according to Jim Thibert, chief executive officer of the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium.
Fort Erie’s Tuesday cards will begin at 4:15 p.m., and the Prince of Wales, which is the second leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, would be run at approximately 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
A $1.5 million race in the hills of West Virginia may not be as glamorous as a $10 million race in the desert of Dubai, but it certainly was the wiser of the two options trainer Bob Baffert had for his multiple Grade 1- winning gelding Game On Dude.
Two years after finishing second in the then-$1 million Charles Town Classic, Game On Dude is back to take another shot at West Virginia’s biggest prize, only this time the pot is $1.5 million with $1 million guaranteed to the winner.
MIAMI – Sprint champion Trinniberg got back to work here at Calder on Wednesday, breezing for the first time since his 11th-place finish in the Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan on March 30.
With jockey Jose Alvarez aboard, Trinniberg went an easy half-mile in 50.22 seconds before galloping out five-eighths in 1:02.40 shortly after the renovation break.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Pure Fun, the only filly in a field of 11 3-year-olds, drew the far-outside post for the Grade 3, $200,000 Coolmore Lexington Stakes, to be run Saturday at Keeneland for the 32nd time.
Rosie Napravnik has the call on Pure Fun, a Grade 1-winning filly who will be prepping for a start in the May 3 Kentucky Oaks. She faces a demanding task in the 1 1/16-mile Polytrack race when facing the likes of Winning Cause, Sunbean, Examen, and Cerro.
The Lexington is worth 20 points to the winner toward qualifying for the May 4 Kentucky Derby.
Texas-breds Triumph and Song and Lasting Bubbles ran lofty Beyer Speed Figures in winning statebred stakes at Lone Star opening week.
Triumph and Song, a 4-year-old gelding, earned a 99 Beyer for his win against males in the opening-night Premiere. To put that in perspective, Justin Phillip ran a 103 in winning Saturday’s Grade 3 Count Fleet at Oaklawn and Handsome Mike posted a 94 in taking the Grade 3 Commonwealth at Keeneland.
A field of eight fillies and mares was drawn Tuesday at Keeneland for Friday's 1 1/16-mile Polytrack feature, the Doubledogdare Stakes. The Grade 3, $100,000 race features likely top choices Inglorious and Mystical Star.
From the rail, this is the field: Artemus Kitten, Ice Cream Silence, Inglorious, Alaura Michele, Mystical Star, Sisterhood, Lotta Lovin, and Minakshi.
Inglorious, with Julien Leparoux to ride, is best known as the 2011 Queen’s Plate winner. Mystical Star (Jose Lezcano) was the runner-up here last fall in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes.
