HOUSTON - Trainer Jack Bruner has seen a different side of Most Feared since the horse arrived at Sam Houston Race Park to prepare for Saturday night's $100,000 Star of Texas Stakes.
The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up is one of eight stakes on the annual Texas Champions Day program, worth a cumulative $550,000. All of the races except the $150,000 Sam Houston Texan Juvenile are restricted to Texas-breds.
Earlier this week, trainer Doug O'Neill said he would like to see Excessivepleasure draw outside of the other speed horses in the Grade 3, $150,000 Oklahoma Derby. He got his wish on Thursday when Excessivepleasure landed post 3 in the six-horse field, right outside of his main pace rival, Kool Humor.
The Oklahoma Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race to be run at Remington Park on Sunday, is the richest stakes of the meet. Excessivepleasure was made the 6-5 morning-line favorite, followed by 5-2 second choice Kool Humor.
Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has expressed support for a slot-machine plan that limits gambling licenses to one per company, making a concession on Wednesday that could create problems for Pimlico Race Course.
Acknowledging criticism that his original slots-at-racetracks proposal would have enriched a few wealthy track owners, the governor said he could accept a condition established by House Speaker Michael E. Busch - that one company be prevented from receiving multiple licenses.
In a standoff that took a new twist on Thursday, Churchill Downs Simulcast Network withheld all of its signals, including Churchill Downs, Hollywood Park, Calder Race Course, and Hoosier Park, from the more than one dozen tracks that make up the Southern Racing Cooperative.
The Churchill network and the cooperative have been in talks regarding simulcast rates since at least Tuesday, Hollywood's opening day, when the cooperative tracks chose not to import the Hollywood program. The parties were still in discussions on Thursday, even after the signals were withdrawn by Churchill.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The decision by Hollywood Park to shorten the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes to one mile beginning this year was met with mixed reviews, but it may help to land a prize catch in Adoration, the upset winner of last month's Breeders' Cup Distaff.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Julie Krone, the winningest female rider in history, will be at Aqueduct on Saturday to ride Banyu Dewi in the Grade 2, $150,000 Long Island Handicap. It marks her first appearance in New York since Nov. 6, 1998. Her last win in New York came on Oct. 30, 1998.
MIAMI - The focus of attention and much of the wagering in Saturday's $150,000 Jack Price Juvenile will be on undefeated 2-year-olds Sir Oscar and Wynn Dot Comma. But from a handicapping standpoint, the seven-furlong dash is more than just a two-horse race.
The Jack Price and its filly counterpart, the $150,000 Joe O'Farrell Juvenile Fillies, will feature some of the most promising youngsters to race here in years. Along with the two unbeaten colts, the Jack Price also drew stakes winner Stolen Time, the much-improved Cheetah Speed, the speedy Ice Wynnd Fire, and four others.
MIAMI - Trainer Todd Pletcher will bring the bulk of his powerful stable to Florida when the Palm Meadows training center opens the day after Thanksgiving. But he has shipped three of his better horses down a little early to participate in Saturday's Florida Million program at Calder, including Smok'n Frolic, who easily outclasses her field in the $200,000 Elmer Heubeck Distaff Handicap.
In addition to the 1 1/16-mile Heubeck, for fillies and mares, Pletcher has Pick'em in the $150,000 Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap and Music's Storm in the $150,000 Bonnie Heath Turf Cup.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Northwest winds gusted through Chicago at close to 30 miles per hour Thursday afternoon - and the weather seemed mild.
It was, compared with Wednesday, when Hawthorne managed to conduct seven of nine scheduled races under unbelievably windy conditions. The wind swept east on Thursday, canceling races all over the East Coast. Wednesday, with sustained winds over 40 miles per hour and gusts approaching 60, Hawthorne almost made it through an entire card.