HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - My Trusty Cat, an impressive allowance winner last month at Oaklawn, worked a bullet six furlongs in 1:13.20 on Sunday for a possible start in Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Oaklawn Breeders' Cup.
A 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares, the Oaklawn BC is expected to be headed by the Bob Baffert-trained Cat Fighter and is one of two major stakes here this weekend. The other is the Grade 3, $100,000 Razorback Handicap on Sunday.
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - In a performance the likes of which Sunland Park regulars could not remember seeing before, Bang shaved .48 of a second off the 6 1/2-furlong track record, running the distance in 1:14.29, with jockey Tony Noguez standing up in the saddle as Bang won the $5,825 Bill Thomas Memorial Handicap.
For Bang, a 4-year-old trained by Eric Kruljac, it was his fourth consecutive victory of the meet, a streak that includes setting the track record for 1,000 yards in last month's Budweiser Handicap.
Bronze Abe ($3.20) raced in tandem with Search for a Cure throughout much of the seven-furlong, $75,000 Conniver Stakes before she finally inched away to a half-length victory.
The scratches of morning-line favorite Gazillion and longshot Chiquilina had left only four starters in the race. The 5-year-old Bronze Abe has now won five stakes events, all in Maryland.
ALBANY, Calif. - The two premier races of the Golden Gate Fields season are coming up, with the $200,000 Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby on Saturday and $125,000 Golden Gate Breeders' Cup Handicap on Sunday.
Although it was pushed back a week and will be run the same weekend as the San Felipe, a $250,000, Grade 3 race at Santa Anita, the El Camino will have a strong field and an interesting mix of local stars and invaders.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Dismissed at 43-1, Pico Central pulled a shocking upset in Sunday's $150,000 , leading throughout to win by two lengths.
The Grade 2 San Carlos marked the U.S. stakes debut for Pico Central, 5, a two-time Group 1 winner in Brazil in 2002 and 2003. The race marked the first Santa Anita stakes win for trainer Paulo Lobo, who is best known as the trainer of Farda Amiga, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2002.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - House Party turned back to 6 1/2 furlongs for Sunday's $100,000 and needed every inch of that distance before finally wearing down a game Mooji Moo to post a hard fought neck victory.
House Party finished a well beaten seventh making her two turn debut six weeks earlier in the one mile and one sixteenth Sunshine Millions Distaff. Allowed to save ground and settle in mid-pack in the run down the backstretch, House Party eased out to commence her rally approaching the quarter pole then finished determinedly to catch Mooji Moo in the final strides.
Surf N Sand held off Eternal Cup and See How She Runs for a three-quarter length win in the $50,000 Spring Fever Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Sunday. Eternal Cup finished second, a half-length in front of third-place finisher See How She Runs.
Surf N Sand ($5.40), who added blinkers for the race, broke well and led the field through fractions of 22.52 seconds for the opening quarter and 46.19 seconds for the half-mile mark. She covered the five and a half furlongs for fillies and mares in 1:04.70.
NEW ORLEANS - For months, Wimbledon trained like a top-class colt, but underachieved in the afternoon. Those closest to him never lost faith that he would finally race to his potential, and on Sunday at Fair Grounds, he did.
Wimbledon, making his stakes debut in the $600,000 , burst between horses at the top of the stretch and went on to a 2 1/4-length victory over another California invader, Borrego, in the Grade 2 race for 3-year-olds.
PORTLAND, Ore. - A compact field of five $4,000 claimers will do battle at a mile in the best race on a special Tuesday card at Portland Meadows.
Tuesday's program is one of four make-up days scheduled to replace cards lost to a winter storm. The others are Monday, April 19, Friday, April 23, and Monday, April 25. Tuesday's first post is 1:35 p.m. Pacific.
Deke's Star may be the one to beat in the feature, as he is coming off a game win over $3,200 company at six furlongs on Feb. 16. He prevailed by a head that day over next-out winner Mr. Melcap in 1:13.16.
The biggest day of the Tampa Bay Downs meet comes this Sunday when the track will card three stakes: the Grade 3, $250,000 Tampa Bay Derby, the Grade 3, $100,000 Hillsborough Stakes, and the $150,000 Florida Oaks.
The Tampa Bay Derby, run at 1 1/16 miles, has produced such Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown contenders as Menifee, Parade Ground, and Wheelaway. Sunday's edition is shaping up as one of the more competitive races in recent memory, and as of Saturday, at least seven 3-year-olds were probable for the race.
