NEW ORLEANS - There are some nice horses entered in the Colonel Power Handicap, but it's possible that one stands out. has raced just once since last March, and didn't even win, but this 4-year-old colt could have a strong season in graded stakes-level sprint races.
So go the hopes, at least, of his trainer, Dallas Stewart. "I'm hoping later on in the year he could be a Breeders' Cup Sprint type of horse," Stewart said.
NEW ORLEANS - On the surface, little distinguished Raised Right's victory in Thursday's seventh race at Fair Grounds. Raised Right, a first-time starter who has just turned 4, took betting action, and his solid half-length win got his backers $5.60 to win. But the race meant more to the people close to Raised Right.
Trainer Neil Pessin, who won just once in 2003, had waited two years for the colt to start, and as Pessin has plowed forward with a handful of lower-level horses, Raised Right has kept him hopeful.
Greg James is not your typical businessman. He works long hours like most, but his "power lunches" come at a different location than most corporate types - at the racetrack.
James, who owns and manages seven hotels in the Louisville metropolitan area, goes to the office in the morning, heads to Churchill Downs Trackside for late training hours, and returns to the office for more hotel management work later in the afternoon. And, of course, every so often he heads to Turfway Park at night to race one of the 20 horses he owns and trains.
ALBANY, Calif. - Russell Baze is getting eager to ride.
Baze, fourth on the all-time career list with 8,484 victories, finished second in the nation in wins in 2003, with 410. He has not ridden since suffering a displaced fracture of his right collarbone Nov. 30.
He will be examined Thursday, and, if he is cleared to ride, his agent, Ray Harris, will begin booking mounts for him Jan. 22.
"I just got cleared to begin jogging so that I can start to get my legs into shape," said Baze, 45.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Friday's card at Aqueduct was canceled after four races because of the extreme cold.
With the temperature hovering at 16 degrees and a wind chill of zero, the jockeys decided not to ride the five remaining races.
Jockey Mike Luzzi said, "It's not that it's dangerous [to ride]; it's just not possible. Shaun [Bridgmohan] has welts on his face from the dirt hitting him."
Richard Migliore, the meet's leading rider, said he couldn't feel his fingers because of the cold.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When trainer Barclay Tagg shipped down to Gulfstream Park from his Palm Meadows base to school in the paddock last Sunday, it was a good indication that the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was about ready to return to action.
And sure enough, four days later Tagg entered Funny Cide in a seven-furlong allowance on Saturday at Gulfstream.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Lori Testerman has been training racehorses in Maryland for 25 years, all of them under the national radar. Testerman did attract 15 minutes of regional fame when a speed demon named Disco Rico knocked out over a half-million dollars in the mid-Atlantic region in the late 1990's, but overall, she remains unknown to the vast majority of racing fans.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The setting will be Santa Anita, but it might as well be Longchamp. Saturday's $150,000 San Gorgonio Handicap for older female turf runners features five horses who have the same midpack style. There is absolutely no speed in the race. The 1 1/8-mile grass race figures to be run slow early, fast late, much like in Europe, and much to the probable liking of the expected heavy favorite, .
