HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - My Trusty Cat, who was making her first start in blinkers, drew clear to win by five lengths over Ruby's Reception in the $75,000 Honeybee for 3-year-old fillies Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
It was another 1 1/4 lengths back in third to Explosive Beauty, who was the stronger part of a favored entry with Quest for Truth.
NEW ORLEANS - In an era when small fields are the norm for major stakes races, and when trainers run and hide when they think they can't win, Sunday's $750,000 at Fair Grounds is a refreshing anomaly.
Even though Badge of Silver scored an overpowering victory here in the Risen Star Stakes last month, and vaulted to No. 2 on Daily Racing Form's Derby Watch list, the No. 1 Kentucky Derby contender, Kafwain, has shipped in from California for the race. So, too, have Peace Rules from California and Funny Cide from Florida, two others listed on the Derby Watch's top 25.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The filly-mare championship of the Santa Anita winter meet is only one starter away from perfection, which is just fine. It makes Sunday's Grade 1 Santa Margarita Handicap the most intriguing stakes race of the season.
"Without Azeri in there, it could be anyone's race," trainer Ron McAnally said.
Cat Genius, who used a high turn of speed to win the first three races of his career before grabbing a quarter as the favorite in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, will make his comeback Sunday night in the $75,000 Sportsman's Paradise for 3-year-olds at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
The seven-furlong race will be run around two turns, and the distance and configuration is why the front-running Cat Genius, who is one of six stakes winners in the 10-horse field, is here.
ARCADIA, Calif. - In the last five weeks, Siberland has fought through a foot problem and a sore muscle in his hind quarters to remain an outsider on the Triple Crown trail.
In the last few days, trainer Kevin Lewis has faced a new dilemma - choosing a jockey for Siberland, a three-time stakes winner, for the $250,000 San Felipe Stakes next Sunday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Emily Ring will spot each of her rivals eight pounds when she goes for her fourth straight stakes victory Sunday in the $50,000 Spring Fever Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
The 5 1/2-furlong race for fillies and mares drew a field of 10.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Vesta, who last year wont the Grade 3 Ms. Preakness and the Smart Halo at Pimlico, returns to the races in Sunday's $60,000 Safely Kept at Aqueduct.
Vesta, who is owned by Five K Farm, meets eight other fillies and mares in the six-furlong Safely Kept.
After finishing fourth in the Grade 1 Prioress on July 6, Vesta was diagnosed with knee chips and underwent surgery. Vesta, a daughter of Fortunate Prospect, spent a few months on a Florida farm recuperating before returning to trainer Joe Aquilino's Aqueduct barn in late October.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - With six of the seven highweights passing the race and only three pounds separating highweight Miesque's Approval from the lowweights, it doesn't take a genius to realize Sunday's $100,000 Canadian Turf Handicap is completely up for grabs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Barring the unexpected, Sky Mesa will not run in the 2003 Kentucky Derby.
"He hasn't been back to the track yet," trainer John Ward said at Gulfstream Park on Friday morning. "He's still got something going on in that one heel inside the right bulb. He walks under tack every day but until he's 100 percent he won't go to the track to gallop.
NEW ORLEANS - The demise of The Thoroughbred Corporation, as Mark Twain might have said, has been greatly exaggerated.
Despite the death in Saudi Arabia last July of its principal owner, Prince Ahmed bin Salman, The Thoroughbred Corp. remains a force in the United States. The stable has reduced its numbers of horses, but still has several prominent runners, most notably Kafwain, the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby.
