HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - With his stablemate, Puzzlement, sidelined by a leg infection, Bowman's Band will have to go it alone Saturday against nine rivals in the Grade 3, $100,000 Skip Away Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
finished a neck behind when Puzzlement took the Hal's Hope Handicap here on opening day. Bowman's Band then finished last in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap - Puzzlement was fourth - when he clipped heels and almost went down entering the far turn.
NEW ORLEANS - Just because Lady Tak won't be ready to race until next month doesn't mean Steve Asmussen is without a horse for the $75,000 Marie Krantz Memorial Handicap on Saturday at Fair Grounds. Lady Tak is scheduled to make her 2004 debut at Keeneland, but , another Asmussen-trained horse, fits well enough that she is likely to be favored in the Marie Krantz.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Lennyfromalibu was dethroned as the top California-bred turf sprinter when McCann's Mojave edged him in the Sensational Star Handicap at Santa Anita on Feb. 14. The difference between the pair was only a half-length, but the loss ended a three-race winning streak for Lennyfromalibu.
That streak began last November in the California Cup Mile on turf, a distance and surface that Lennyfromalibu will try again in Saturday's $100,000 Crystal Water Handicap for statebreds.
PORTLAND, Ore. - It is beginning to look as though Northern Baquero's half-length victory over the heavily favored Mythical Road in last month's 1 1/16-mile McFadden Memorial was the best thing that could have happened to the local 3-year-old set.
Until the McFadden, which drew just seven starters, the 3-year-old division was wearing decidedly thin. After Northern Baquero won that race at 15-1, the drought turned into a flood, and no fewer than 19 3-year-olds were nominated for Saturday's renewal of the Preview Stakes and a full field of 12 was entered.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - It will take some hair-splitting to come up with the winner of the Grade 3, $200,000 Oaklawn Breeders' Cup on Saturday. A well-matched field of 10 fillies and mares is entered in the 1 1/16-mile race, which serves as a prep for the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap.
Jockey Edgar Prado won five races on Thursday's nine-race Gulfstream Park card - a meet high for a single card - giving him 4,999 victories for his career. With one more win, Prado, 36, will become the 19th jockey to win 5,000 races.
It was the eighth multiple-win day for Prado at Gulfstream since Feb. 19. Prado is the second-leading rider at the meet with 58 victories, trailing only John Velazquez, who has 73 wins.
Suffolk Downs will shift the date of the 64th Massachusetts Handicap to Saturday, June 19, when the Grade 2, $500,000 contest returns from a one-year hiatus this upcoming season.
The 1 1/8-mile race had been scheduled for May 29 when the 2004 stakes schedule was announced last month. The new date places it one week after the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs and the Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park.
Orlando Bocachica, the third-leading rider at Philadelphia Park, has been banned from the track grounds after a Pennsylvania judge rejected his appeal of a ruling issued against him last summer by the state's horse racing commission.
Bocachica's racing license was seized and he was ejected from the Bensalem, Pa., track on June 26, 2003, after he admitted in a signed statement to using a battery on numerous occasions during training hours. He had continued riding while his appeal was pending.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - There was one winning ticket worth $362,976 on the pick six at Oaklawn Park on Thursday. The wager was last hit on Feb. 28, making for a seven day carryover of $177,159 going into Thursday. Another $313,614 was bet into the pick six Thursday.
The pick six payoff was the second highest in track history, behind an $818,693 payoff on Feb. 15, 1995. The winning, 6-for-6 ticket was purchased at Lewiston, Maine hub, according to officials at Oaklawn.
The winning numbers on races three through eight were 12-3-9-4-2-6.