PORTLAND, Ore. - The market for horses was remarkably strong at the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association's annual winter mixed sale, held at Emerald Downs last Sunday.
A total of 151 horses sold for $728,600, an average price of $4,793. Gross receipts were up 30 percent, and the average was up 44 percent from last year's winter sale, when 167 horses were sold for $557,200, an average of $3,337 each. The median price also increased from $2,200 to $2,700, a gain of 23 percent.
Hawkish will earn the largest check in the 53-year history of Los Alamitos Race Course on Friday night if he wins the Grade 1, $1,367,650 Los Alamitos Million and collects the $1 million Los Alamitos Bonanza bonus.
The Los Alamitos Million is the first of four Grade 1 races during the year's most important weekend at Los Alamitos. Saturday night, the 2003 world championship could be decided in the $500,000 Champion of Champions. Sunday, the $175,000 Marathon National - the world's richest 870-yard race - and the $155,950 Southern California Derby will be contested.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Dear John and Scaffolds Legacy, who finished second and third to An Naabi when racing under similar conditions on Nov. 29, will be rematched in Friday's top offering at Portland Meadows.
The feature is a six-furlong race for horses eligible to be claimed for $5,000 to $6,250. The race has drawn a field of eight.
NEW ORLEANS - Even in late morning the northeast corner of Barn 16 at Fair Grounds is dark. At 3:30 a.m. it is much darker, but that is when 80-year-old Eddie Johnson arrives to begin the day's work. An hour and a half later, Diana Soileau, his daughter, shows up. There is Robert Jason, a longtime exercise rider, and nine racehorses, each behind white stall webbings marked with two stars and a red "S".
NEW ORLEANS - Slot machines have come to Delta Downs and Louisiana Downs. They're on the way at Evangeline Downs, and are likely to come to Fair Grounds, too.
What it all means is more Louisiana-breds.
Slot-machine revenues already have boosted statebred purses at Delta to historic levels, and chances are the same thing will happen across the state. Thoroughbred owners and breeders already have taken notice, and the Louisiana-bred foal crop is rising sharply each year. And what that should mean is higher-class Louisiana-bred racehorses.
NEW ORLEANS - Now it's clear why trainer Keith Desormeaux wanted Conscious Contact back.
Desormeaux left Fair Grounds last season with Conscious Contact, a 3-year-old Skip Away gelding, but he ran him in a $30,000 claiming race April 10 at Lone Star and lost him to the trainer Bubba Cascio. Twenty days later, Conscious Contact was back in for $30,000, and quickly, he was back in Desormeaux's barn.
MIAMI - After watching Silver Wagon work five furlongs in 1:00.25 at Calder on Monday morning, trainer Ralph Ziadie said he is 85 to 90 percent certain his Grade 1 winner will make his two-turn debut in Saturday's $100,000 What a Pleasure Stakes.
Working in company with 3-year-old stablemate Troll, Silver Wagon was timed by Daily Racing Form in splits of 23.41 seconds, 35.41, and 47.22 before galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.91.
Remington Park in Oklahoma City, which has been struggling in the face of increased competition from American Indian casinos, reported declines in average attendance and ontrack handle during its 2003 season, which closed Nov. 30.
Officials said the track will not announce offtrack handle figures because Remington, which is owned by Magna Entertainment, raced a drastically different schedule this year than it did in 2002.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Master David, who finished second to Read the Footnotes in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes on Nov. 29, will be transferred to trainer Bobby Frankel for his 3-year-old season, owner Peter Minikes said Monday.
Master David, a Kentucky-bred son of Grand Slam, is currently stabled at Belmont Park with trainer Bobby Barbara, who trains for Minikes. Master David will ship to Frankel's Hollywood Park barn when a flight becomes available.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After winning three consecutive stakes against 3-year-olds in August and September, Excess Summer found racing more difficult when he made his stakes debut against older horses in the Seabiscuit Handicap at Santa Anita in late October.
Sent off at 9-2, Excess Summer led to early stretch before fading to finish ninth in a field of 11. The loss diminished the status of the former maiden claimer, who can redeem himself against rival California-breds in Saturday's $95,000 On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park.
