HORSE RACING: TO FIGURE OUT TURF RACES, LOOK AT THE TRAINERS.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing horse racing, trials of speed involving two or more horses. It includes races among harnessed horses with one of two particular gaits, among saddled Thoroughbreds (or, less frequently, quarterhorses) on a flat track, or among saddled horses over a turf course with Santa Anita's four turf stakes on this holiday weekend - and all of the track's turf races for the next month or so - will pose an unusual challenge for the bettors among us. After the recent Hollywood Park meet was held without grass racing because of problems with the course, most turf specialists here have gone a couple of months without competing. The rest ran most recently on the dirt track at Hollywood, or ran in turf or dirt races at Golden Gate Fields Golden Gate Fields is a horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay adjacent to the or other out-of-town facilities. The upshot is that handicappers have less directly pertinent current form by which to judge horses. What to do? ``I'd look for good horses in good hands,'' said Darrell Vienna, who is training Dominiques Darling for Saturday's Monrovia Handicap, and Atlando and Don Incauto for Sunday's San Gabriel Handicap The San Gabriel Handicap is a race for thoroughbred horses run at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California each year. The race is open to horses, age three and up, willing to race one and one-eighth miles on the dirt and offers a purse of $150,000. . ``But maybe that's too simple.'' Early evidence says Vienna is right to suggest that the best trainers will have a bigger-than-usual edge in upcoming turf races, because they know how to get horses ready with workouts alone or with less-than-ideal prep races. In the eight turf races held in Santa Anita's first three days, 75 percent of the first- and second-place finishers were trained by Hall of Famers (Richard Mandella, Neil Drysdale, Bobby Frankel), Horse of the Year trainers (Bob Baffert, Jay Robbins), Breeders' Cup-winning trainers (David Hofmans, Julio Canani), local leaders (Jeff Mullins, Doug O'Neill) or a winner of 20 percent-plus this year (Mike Mitchell). Unless rain closes the turf course this weekend, Santa Anita fans can look forward to wracking their brains over Saturday's $100,000 Monrovia, a downhill sprint for fillies and mares; Sunday's $150,000 San Gabriel, 1 1/8 miles for older horses; Sunday's $75,000 Blue Norther, 1 mile for 3-year-old fillies; and Monday's $75,000 Hill Rise, 1 mile for 3-year-olds. The Monrovia features Resplendency re·splen·dent adj. Splendid or dazzling in appearance; brilliant. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin resplend , making her turf debut after winning a Hollywood dirt sprint for Baffert, and Elusive Diva, coming off a 51-day break as she goes for her fourth in a row on the Santa Anita hillside for Mark Glatt Glatt may refer to:
The San Gabriel has Badge of Silver, in his turf debut after a weak effort at Aqueduct for Frankel; Choctaw Nation, a first-time turf runner off a two-month break for Mullins, and Toasted, the Arlington Classic winner who hasn't started since September for Laura de Seroux. Handicap the horses, but only after you handicap the trainers. --Rose parade? Jeremy Rose, the young jockey who kept Afleet Alex upright after a top-of-the-stretch collision in the Preakness, makes his first appearance at Santa Anita on Saturday when he rides front-running Trickle of Gold in the La Brea Stakes The La Brea Stakes is a race for thoroughbred horses open to three-year-old fillies. The La Brea is at a distance of seven furlongs on the Santa Anita Park dirt track. A Grade I event, it offers a purse of $250,000. for 3-year-old fillies. Rose took over for injured Clinton Potts in August and rode Trickle of Gold to the past five of her six consecutive wins - by a total of nearly 45 lengths - in Delaware and Maryland. They'll be favored in a field of 14 in the 7-furlong La Brea, the fillies' equivalent of the opening-day Malibu Stakes. The Grade I La Brea includes Grade I winners Leave Me Alone and Sharp Lisa, and impressive last-race winners Miss Storm Cat and Pussycat puss·y·cat n. 1. A cat. 2. Informal One who is regarded as easygoing, mild-mannered, or amiable. Noun 1. Doll. --Count the votes: My Eclipse Awards ballot went in this week, with Breeders' Cup Classic The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade 1 Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3 years old and older run at a distance of 1¼ miles (2012 m) on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup. winner Saint Liam the Horse of the Year pick, Preakness-Belmont winner Afleet Alex second and sprint star Lost in the Fog Lost in the Fog (February 4, 2002 - September 17, 2006) was an American thoroughbred race horse. Bred by Susan Seper and born in Florida, the Fog's sire was Lost Soldier (sire so far of 10 stakes winners), a son of Danzig (himself the son of Northern Dancer ranked at #43 by The third. All three had memorable years. Saint Liam capped it right while Alex's career ended too soon and the Fog's fizzled in the Breeders' Cup Sprint The Breeders' Cup Sprint is an American Weight for Age Grade I Thoroughbred horse race for three year olds & up. Run on dirt over a distance of 6 Furlongs (3/4 mile), the race has been held annually since 1984 at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the . Here are my 1-2-3 picks for the national divisional championships. Winners will be announced Jan. 23 in Beverly Hills. The horses: Older male - Saint Liam, Rock Hard Ten, Roses in May; older female - Ashado, Pleasant Home, Dream of Summer; turf male - Artie Schiller, Leroidesanimaux, Shirocco; turf female - Intercontinental, Megahertz One million cycles per second. See MHz. MegaHertz - (MHz) Millions of cycles per second. The unit of frequency used to measure the clock rate of modern digital logic, including microprocessors. , Cesario; sprinter - Lost in the Fog, Silver Train, Taste of Paradise; 3-year-old - Afleet Alex, Giacomo, Flower Alley; 3-year-old filly -Smuggler, Splendid Blended, Sweet Catomine; 2-year-old - Stevie Wonderboy, First Samurai, What a Song; 2-year-old filly - Folklore, Wild Fit, Adieu; steeplechaser steeplechaser a horse schooled in and used for steeplechase racing. - McDynamo, Hirapour, Sur La Tete. The people: jockey - John Velazquez, Edgar Prado, Garrett Gomez; trainer - Todd Pletcher, Bobby Frankel, Tim Ritchey; owner - Michael Gill, Harry Aleo, Bob Bone; breeder - Juddmonte Farms, Adena Springs, Edward P. Evans. CAPTION(S): box Box: OUT OF THE GATE BY KEVIN MODESTI |
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