OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Redskin Warrior, a nominee to the Gotham Stakes, worked over Aqueduct's inner track on Wednesday. The work took place 55 minutes before the first race of the winter-spring meet was run on the main track.
Jennifer Pedersen, Redskin Warrior's trainer, said she worked the colt over the inner track because she believed the surface was drier than the main oval, which opened for training for the first time on Wednesday and was listed as muddy during training hours and for the first three races.
NEW ORLEANS - What's in a name? Perhaps the winner of the featured ninth race Friday at Fair Grounds.
In this case the name is Scherer, as in Richie, though for most of this long Fair Grounds meet, it has been Merrill Scherer setting racetrack tongues wagging. Merrill, Richie's father, got hot in December and has stayed hot since: Through Monday, he had won with 24 of 72 starters here, good for fourth in the trainer standings. Last season, the elder Scherer sent out 72 and won nine.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The last time Keys to the Heart went from turf to dirt, she won the biggest race of her career. That could happen again Saturday, when she makes the same surface switch for the Grade 3, $200,000 Oaklawn Breeders' Cup at Oaklawn Park.
Keys to the Heart comes into the Oaklawn BC, a 1 1/16- mile race for fillies and mares, on the heels of a three-quarter length win in an optional claimer on turf at Santa Anita on Feb. 12. She covered the one-mile distance in a sharp 1:35.38.
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - Bang turned in the top performance of this meet in last Saturday's $50,000 Bill Thomas Memorial Handicap, winning by seven lengths, shattering the track record for 6 1/2 furlongs, and earning a 103 Beyer Speed Figure. Not bad for a horse who started this season off in a $25,000 claiming race.
Bang has won four straight races here at Sunland and has established himself as the top sprinter in the region. His success can be attributed to the patience his trainer, Eric Kruljac, showed last season when Bang was 3.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - The scene around Joe Moss's barn hasn't changed much, yet.
The durable 13-year-old Leaping Plum still resides in his usual stall. But while the other horses in the Moss barn go to the track in the mornings to train, "The Plum" stays put.
A rare weekday stakes race is scheduled at Turfway Park on Friday, the result of racing being canceled last weekend because of unsafe track conditions. The rescheduled $50,000 Wintergreen Stakes highlights the 12-race card, featuring a field of 11 fillies and mares, including three Southern shippers.
Playa Maya, who based in New Orleans this winter, is one such shipper. A winner of 2 of 4 starts, she comes off a fast 4 1/2-length allowance triumph at Fair Grounds Jan. 23. Although that victory came on grass, trainer David Carroll anticipates her running as well on dirt.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Boardroom Banter had the kind of form only an owner could bet on in the first leg of Friday's pick four, and owner Ron Sutton must have been about the only person who did. When he won at 35-1 under longshot artist Melissa Peery, he keyed a record pick four payoff of $3,359 that Sutton shared with three partners.
The Manitoba Derby, which lost its Grade 3 status and had its purse reduced by 25 percent, still holds bragging rights as the richest race at Winnipeg's Assiniboia Downs this year.
The $75,000 Manitoba Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds on Aug. 2, tops a list of 31 stakes worth a total of $2.63 million at the 75-day meeting. The Graduation Stakes for 2-year-old colts and geldings was eliminated from the schedule this year.