EAST BOSTON, Mass. - Eight of the best female horses in New England make Saturday's $35,000 Hannah Dustin Stakes at Suffolk Downs a wide-open race.
The group's collective form is remarkably strong. Three runners are coming off victories, and all but one of the rest of the field finished in-the-money last time.
Two veteran mares, Big Miss and Shiloh Lane, are from the barn of Don Caroli, and there's little between them in terms of ability.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. - Fonner Park will enter its 50th season of racing when it begins a 38-day meet Saturday. The track's showcase event, the $100,000 Bosselman-Gus Fonner Handi-cap, will be run on April 26.
Twelve-year-old Leaping Plum, one of the most popular sprinters ever to run at the five-eighth-mile track, is back and should see action in next week's Grasmick Handicap at four furlongs. Leaping Plum's streak of seven consecutive wins in the Grasmick, dating to 1995, was halted when he finished third last year.
ARCADIA, Calif. - So far, Empire Maker is just a lightly raced colt with a big reputation. By Friday evening, after he makes his 3-year-old debut in the $75,000 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita, he could be a top contender for the Kentucky Derby.
Trained by Bobby Frankel, Empire Maker makes his first start in California in the restricted Sham Stakes. Run over 1 1/8 miles, the Sham has drawn a field of seven and is restricted to nonwinners of a first-place purse of $50,000 at a mile or over.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Except for Mark Shuman, nobody has had a better first month at the 2003 Gulfstream meet than trainer Dale Romans. The two red-hot trainers will go head to head in Friday's featured eighth race when Romans sends out Dubai Sheikh against Shuman's My Good Trick in a $38,000 allowance race at six furlongs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Powerful Touch, who finished just a head behind Offlee Wild in last month's Holy Bull Stakes, on Wednesday earned the dubious distinction of being one of the first significant 3-year-olds to drop out of this year's Kentucky Derby chase because of an injury.
Powerful Touch has been favoring his right front foot, and according to trainer Ken McPeek, X-rays showed something suspicious in the right leg's pastern. So, Powerful Touch has been taken out of training, and will be off for approximately two months before starting again.
NEW ORLEANS - South Florida-based trainer Todd Pletcher plans to invade Fair Grounds stakes races the next two weekends, first with Balto Star, then with the 3-year-old Indy Dancer.
Balto Star, en route by plane to New Orleans on Wednesday, will start Sunday in the $125,000 Whirlaway. Indy Dancer will run a week later in the Risen Star Stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Perfect Story earned herself a likely starting berth in the Grade 2 Bonnie Miss Stakes on March 14 with a very professional two-length victory over a game but overmatched Final Round in Wednesday's co-featured eighth race at Gulfstream Park.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Javier Castellano, the leading rider at Aqueduct's winter meet, was taken to North Shore University Hospital for precautionary X-rays on his shoulder and neck following a nasty spill in Wednesday's eighth race.
Castellano was aboard River Salt when that 5-year-old mare broke down less than a quarter of a mile into the race. Castellano was unseated and hit the track hard. Though River Salt was part of the early pace, Castellano was fortunate not to be stepped on by a trailing horse.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Azeri may make her 2003 debut in the $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 5, a race she won in 2002 en route to being named Horse of the Year, trainer Laura de Seroux said on Wednesday.
On Monday, the 5-year-old Azeri was withdrawn from a planned dispersal of the racehorses owned by Allen Paulson Living Trust on March 4 after the beneficiaries of the Trust reached a settlement regarding the future of Azeri and 19 other horses.
The top stakes horses in the Paul Jones stable, including 2002 co-world champion Whosleavingwho, are ready for the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Championship and the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Winter Derby.
Whosleavingwho is one of four horses Jones is pointing to the Winter Championship. Trials are scheduled for Friday night at Los Alamitos. The $150,000 Winter Championship at 400 yards will be held March 1.
