There Goes Rocket, who later this month will be named Texas's champion 2-year-old colt for 2003, is getting some time off following his win last Saturday night in the $125,000 colts and geldings division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at Sam Houston.
"We're going to give him a little bit of a break right now," said Sam David Jr., who trains There Goes Rocket for Frank Fletcher. "He'll get a little sunshine for a few weeks. He'll get out and get a chance to be a horse."
Blue Ribbon Downs, a small track in Sallisaw, Okla., that was recently purchased by Choctaw Nation, has requested 61 dates of Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred racing for 2004.
The track would like to conduct a spring meet from Feb. 21 to May 1, officials said, then reopen for a fall session the first weekend in August. The fall season would run through Oct. 31.
Blue Ribbon's request is subject to approval from the Oklahoma Racing Commission.
MIAMI - Anybody who watched explode through the stretch to win the Mecke Stakes will probably be hard pressed to bet against him in Thursday's $100,000 Tropical Park Derby. But with a full gate of newly turned, and in many cases improving, 3-year-olds in the field, Calder's New Year's Day feature appears to be anything but a one-horse race.
As always, the Grade 3, 1 1/8-mile Tropical Park Derby is the nation's first graded stakes of the year. It will again share top billing on the card with its filly counterpart, the $100,000 Tropical Oaks.
ARCADIA, Calif. - has won six sprint stakes in the last year, all racing on or near the lead.
But when he tries for his seventh, and fifth consecutive, stakes win in Thursday's Grade 3, $100,000 El Conejo Handicap over 5 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita, King Robyn may have to come from off the pace.
His trainer, Jeff Mullins, insists that won't be a problem.
"King Robyn doesn't need the lead," said Mullins.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - to win.
Elegant Designer, a 4-year-old daughter of Suave Prospect, is 8 for 14 with four stakes wins. She is at her best when she is able to sit back and make one run, a style most effective when there is a hotly contested pace. Go Go Baby Go, however, looms the controlling speed in the seven-horse Interborough and may be tough to run down under Chuck Lopez.
ALBANY, Calif. - Leading trainer Jerry Hollendorfer begins his 2004 season with three of the seven entrants in the $75,000 Lafayette Handicap on New Year's Day at Golden Gate Fields.
Hollendorfer sends Bring Home Thegold, graded stakes winner Cappuchino, and Gold Ruckus, who has moved up the claiming ranks and won three straight since returning to the races after fracturing a shoulder in a race Feb. 17.
Cappuchino, who drew post 2, will probably contest the pace early in the one-mile Lafayette with Long Gone Con, who drew the rail.
Racing resumed at Philadelphia Park on Tuesday after jockeys agreed to ride while they continue to seek a new system for the payment of their riding fees from track management.
On Monday, jockeys announced their refusal to ride the 10-race card shortly before post time for the first race because they were unhappy about a delay in being paid their fees.
Elloluv, a three-time stakes winner and one of the top 3-year-old fillies of 2003, will be given a break until early spring after emerging from Saturday's Grade 1 La Brea Stakes with a cut on the outside of her right foreleg, owner Paul Reddam said.
Reddam is hopeful that Elloluv could return in April or May.
"She'll be out for a while," Reddam said.
Trained by Craig Dollase, Elloluv finished sixth in the La Brea as the 6-5 favorite. She raced in traffic on the backstretch and never threatened the winner, Island Fashion.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Patrick Biancone has a definitive leader among his 3-year-old male prospects in Lion Heart, the undefeated winner of the Hollywood Futurity last month.
Sunday at Santa Anita, he could find a female counterpart if can continue their recent success in stakes in the $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on dirt.