ARCADIA, Calif. - Maiden Tower was brilliant in Europe and the United States last year, winning three stakes and finishing second in three others. Those results made a 13th-place finish in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park in December even more puzzling.
The Matriarch remains the only blemish in Maiden Tower's nine-race career, which resumes in Saturday's $150,000 at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Mel Stute wanted to run Buffythecenterfold in the La Canada Series for 4-year-old fillies earlier this year at Santa Anita. But Frank Stronach, Buffythecenterfold's majority owner, insisted that she stay in sprints, Stute said.
Stute would like to run Buffythecenterfold in as many suitable races as he can find. But he says Stronach wants her to run only once a month.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - The Cliff's Edge begins his march toward a possible start in the 2004 Kentucky Derby as the strong choice in a field of 12 3-year-olds in the $100,000 Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
The Cliff's Edge completed his 2-year-old campaign last year with victories in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club and Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes. He led throughout in his career debut at Saratoga, then broke in the air when wheeled right back in the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Juvenile at Turfway and ran third, beaten 1 1/4 lengths.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It appeared that With Anticipation, the multiple Grade 1-winning gelding, had fully recovered from a tendon injury that short-circuited his 2003 campaign.
But Thursday afternoon, hours after a strong morning workout by With Anticipation, trainer Jonathan Sheppard noticed something amiss with the 9-year-old gelding. Now, it appears that the career of one of the more popular Thoroughbreds of recent years could be over.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The breeding suggested Kitten's Joy would be better on turf. A midsummer's morning breeze last August at Saratoga confirmed it.
"He showed it the first time we breezed him on it at Saratoga; he was a different horse on grass," trainer Dale Romans said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The current buzz is about horses on the Triple Crown trail, but a race for the less-fashionable members of the 3-year-old sprint division came up strong at Aqueduct on Saturday.
Seven entered the $75,000-added , including stakes winners Excellent Band, Smokume, Scary Bob, and Kiowa Prince. Two horses making their stakes debuts, Redskin Warrior and Abbondanza, could be major players in the six-furlong Best Turn.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - In December 2001, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. was watching the Aqueduct replay show at home when he saw New York-bred Well Fancied win an allowance race by 5 3/4 lengths against open company.
Dutrow said he immediately called his main client, Sanford Goldfarb, and said, "We've got to buy [Well Fancied] because he's the next Say Florida Sandy."
Time will tell if Well Fancied can emulate the success of the retired Say Florida Sandy, who became the first New York-bred to earn $2 million, but Well Fancied is already the real deal.
ARCADIA, Calif. - After posting sharp declines in late December and early January, mutuel handle at Santa Anita has rebounded in recent weeks but still trails 2003 figures, according to Jim McAlpine, the chief executive officer of the track's parent company, Magna Entertainment.
McAlpine addressed the issue Thursday at a California Horse Racing Board meeting. The board heard a 12-minute presentation from McAlpine and new track president Jack McDaniel on recent declines in handle at Southern California tracks.
Finger Lakes Racetrack opened its slot-machine casino on Wednesday, attracting 10,000 people to a newly remodeled facility and ushering in an era of slots at New York Thoroughbred tracks.
Finger Lakes, now called Finger Lakes Gaming and Racing, was the second racetrack in New York to open a slot-machine parlor. The first, Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, a harness track, opened in late January.
