MIAMI - Bob Umphrey, the racing secretary of Calder Race Course, has released his 2004 Calder and Tropical-at-Calder stakes schedules, and the emphasis has once again been placed on the track's popular multiple-stakes days.
The 126-day Calder meet runs from April 26 through Oct. 23. The 55-day Tropical meet opens Oct. 24 and continues until Jan. 2, 2005.
After spending past years in Southern California, trainer Chris Paasch would have a right to be frustrated by cold, winter racing in Kentucky. But he says he finds conditions in Kentucky downright balmy.
"I'm originally from upstate New York," he said. "This is like a Hawaiian weekend."
Irrespective of the weather, Paasch is in a positive mood. He won a race Wednesday night at Turfway Park with Mighty David, and the construction at Victory Haven Training Center, which he manages, is proceeding rapidly.
Evangeline Downs, near Lafayette, La., will increase purses for the 11 stakes at its 2004 Thoroughbred meet by more than $125,000, thanks to revenue generated since the December opening of a slots casino at the track's future site in Opelousas, La. The purse schedule will be worth a total of $670,000.
One of the more notable purse increases involves the Evangeline Mile for 3-year-olds and upward on Aug. 14. The purse has been increased from $75,000 to $100,000.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, the top rider in Southern California in 2003, was suspended indefinitely by the Santa Anita board of stewards on Friday for failing to appear for a drug test a day earlier.
The suspension is pending a hearing before the stewards and bans Valenzuela from the racetrack.
Badge of Silver returned to the races with a bang on Friday at Fair Grounds, winning a six-furlong optional claiming race by a widening 2 3/4 lengths.
A top 3-year-old early last year when he won the Grade 3 Risen Star in his third career start, Badge of Silver had not run since suffering a displaced palate in the Louisiana Derby last March 9. He had swooped by Funny Cide, Peace Rules, and Kafwain in the stretch that day, looking like a winner, but then slowed abruptly to finish sixth. A few weeks later, he broke a cannon bone, and his Triple Crown year was over.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Saltwater Runner remained perfect in three career starts when she swept past pacesetter Movant to win the $50,000 Dixie Belle before an opening day crowd of 25,137 at Oaklawn Park on Friday.
Saltwater Runner ($8.40) settled in nicely behind the early leaders, advanced around the turn, and jetted clear in the stretch to win the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies by 2 1/2 lengths. Movant held second, a neck clear of Yoursmineours.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainers don't win 31 percent of the time by putting horses where they can't win.
So Andy Mathis's decision to put razor-sharp At a Boy Luther in Sunday's Golden Gate feature, a six-furlong allowance race, is worth examining.
At a Boy Luther, a 5-year-old gelding, has won five times since being dropped to the bottom in a $3,200 claimer last September, and he's 3 for 3 at the current meeting.
Mathis claimed him for $8,000 on Dec. 5, and At a Boy Luther won for a $12,500 tag on Dec. 29.
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - The $125,000-added New Mexico State University Handicap, to be contested Sunday by statebred 4-year-olds and up over a two-turn mile, may shape up as simply one more jewel in Ciento's crown. A winner of seven of his last nine starts, Ciento has enjoyed a four-race win streak since his only real rival among the division, Star Smasher, was retired last summer.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Peace Rules might have been the most underappreciated 3-year-old of 2003. Consider his resume. He won the Blue Grass Stakes, finished third in the Kentucky Derby, was second in the Travers Stakes, and beat Funny Cide not once but twice, in both the Louisiana Derby and the Haskell Invitational. Yet at year's end, he did not even finish in the top three among Eclipse Award finalists for a divisional championship.
