HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When Read the Footnotes made a successful 3-year-old debut in last weekend's Fountain of Youth Stakes, he became the fifth starter of last fall's Remsen Stakes to win. Four of those horses won stakes.
Trainer David Donk hopes that trend continues Saturday when he sends out Pa Pa Da in the Grade 3, $100,000 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Palm Beach is run at nine furlongs on turf.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Record Tide was clear on the lead and appeared home free at midstretch in a second-level allowance race here on Jan. 24, but was run down late by trainer Bill Mott's lightly raced but talented Key Deputy.
Record Tide returns under similar conditions in Thursday's $36,000 six-furlong allowance feature, and again it may be a member of Mott's barn, this time the enigmatic Draw Fire, who will look to play the spoiler.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Emily Ring, a multiple stakes-winning mare, might have to hold off a couple of 4-year-old fillies, My Trusty Cat and Feisty Princess, to win the featured ninth race Thursday at Oaklawn Park.
A six-furlong allowance for fillies and mares, the race drew a stakes-caliber field of eight and should produce a few starters for the $50,000 Spring Fever on March 7.
Emily Ring has used her speed to win 8 of 31 starts and $357,125. In her last race, she was third in the $50,000 American Beauty at Oaklawn on Feb. 7.
NEW ORLEANS - Steve Asmussen has seen this before. Several years ago, Asmussen began training a turf mare named Histoire Sainte at Fair Grounds. Uncomfortable on many dirt surfaces, Histoire Sainte quickly took to the cushiony Fair Grounds track, and her morning training made her a much better horse in afternoon grass races.
The Maryland Jockey Club, operator of Laurel Park and Pimlico, withdrew its signal from Television Games Network on Monday after a judge ruled that the jockey club could be released from its contract with the racing broadcaster and account-wagering company.
The withdrawal weakened TVG's already lean winter lineup. Because of a conflict with the MJC's majority owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., TVG is prohibited from broadcasting races from the two most popular winter signals in the country, Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park, both owned by Magna.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The first start Beau's Town will make this year during a campaign his connections hope leads to the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint is to be determined after he works five furlongs this weekend at Oaklawn Park.
Beau's Town, considered one of the nation's leading sprinters last year with wins in the Grade 2 Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup at Del Mar and the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn, had his first published work since October last Saturday in Hot Springs. He breezed five furlongs over a fast track in 1:04.40. Jamie Theriot worked Beau's Town.
ALBANY, Calif. - He's back.
El Dorado Shooter, now 7 years old, is ready for his first race since last June, when he won the Bay Meadows Breeders' Cup Sprint. He will seek to win Saturday's $100,000 Ken Maddy Sprint, a six-furlong race for California-breds, for the second straight year, third overall.
El Dorado Shooter won the Ken Maddy Sprint in 2001 and again last year, when he and Giovannetti dueled head and head for the entire six furlongs, through fractions of 21.08 and 43.16 seconds, as El Dorado Shooter kept his head in front all the way.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Victor Espinoza, who leads the nation's jockeys in earnings this year, swept the two stakes at Santa Anita on Monday displaying opposite riding styles.
Espinoza rode Star Parade to a front-running win in the $250,000 Santa Maria Handicap for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles on dirt. In the following race, the $200,000 San Luis Obispo Handicap, Espinoza guided Puerto Banus through traffic to edge Continuously.
Espinoza's mounts have earned $2,528,258 through Monday. He has won seven stakes at the current Santa Anita meeting.
Funny Cide, the champion 3-year-old who finished third in the Donn Handicap in his 4-year-old debut, will most likely make his next start in the Grade 2, $500,000 New Orleans Handicap on Feb. 29, trainer Barclay Tagg said Monday.
Following the Donn, in which Funny Cide was beaten 8 1/2 lengths by Medaglia d'Oro, Tagg said he would consider shortening Funny Cide to one-turn races such as the seven-furlong Richter Scale here March 6. For now, Tagg has decided to keep Funny Cide routing.
