Anita Park

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Area racing fans will have the opportunity to watch and wager on Santa Anita Park's entire racing program when the Charles Town Races begins full-card simulcasts from the southern California track Wednesday.The Santa Anita simulcasts will be offered Wednesday through Sunday in addition to Charles Town's regularly scheduled cards with post time for Santa Anita's first race at 4 p.m. Santa Anita's post time is scheduled to move to 3:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 25 with the return to Daylight Savings Time.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Did he or didn't he? Did trainer Julio Canani say his filly, Sweet Catomine, was the best filly who ever lived - or didn't he? Canani was asked after Sweet Catomine won the Santa Anita Oaks last month at Santa Anita Park how he felt. It was widely reported that he said: "She is the best filly that ever lived. She's going to prove it this year." Now, as Sweet Catomine prepares to meet male horses for the first time tomorrow in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, Canani said that's not what he said.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Area racing fans will have the opportunity to watch and wager on Santa Anita Park's entire racing program when the Charles Town Races begin full-card simulcasts from the southern California track Wednesday.The Santa Anita simulcasts will be offered Wednesday through Sunday in addition to Charles Town's regularly scheduled cards with post time for Santa Anita's first race at 4 p.m. Santa Anita's post time is scheduled to move to 3:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 25 with the return to Daylight Savings Time.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Lisa Lewis spotted the penny in the dirt and considered picking it up. But first, she wanted to know, was it heads or tails?When you've done the best you can with the first good 3-year-old you've ever had, you resort at last to superstition.That's where Lewis, a 29-year-old native of Maryland, finds herself on the eve of the Santa Anita Derby. And that's exactly where she wants to be."This is what you want all the time, the 3-year-old going to the big races," Lewis said outside her barn at Santa Anita Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Former Maryland standout Kent Desormeaux is on the verge of becoming the youngest thoroughbred rider to reach 3,000 victories.With his victory on favored Offshore Pirate in yesterday's first race at Santa Anita Park, Desormeaux, who turned 25 on Feb. 27, moved within four of the plateau. Chris McCarron, Sandy Hawley and Bill Shoemaker were the previous youngest. They reached 3,000 when they were 27.After riding at Santa Anita on Thursday and Friday, Desormeaux will be at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., Friday and at Golden Gate Fields in the Bay Area on Saturday.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Dinard, whose four victories at Santa Anita Park last winter made him the Kentucky Derby favorite before an injury, makes his comeback today as the track begins its 55th season.Unfortunately for Dinard, owner Allen Paulson, trainer Dick Lundy and jockey Pat Valenzuela, Olympio will be there, too, to contest the $100,000-added Malibu Stakes with nine other 3-year-olds.Olympio is the only horse to beat Dinard so far, and did it by a nose at this seven-furlong distance in the Feb. 10 San Vicente Stakes.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Fires in the Los Angeles area have been restricted to the Malibu beach community about 50 miles west of Santa Anita Park and will not affect the Breeders' Cup.Last week, one of the San Gabriel mountains within site of the track was on fire and racing was canceled at Santa Anita on Thursday after the track became shrouded in smoke.But that fire was put out and the air is clear now except for the usual amount of smog.Bill Christine, who covers racing for the Los Angeles Times, said when he walked out of a Santa Anita conference room last week, "The smoke was so pungent that I thought the track could have been on fire."

NEW ORLEANS -- Kimberlite Pipe, a little-known horse dismissed at odds of 21-1, derailed Bob Baffert's runaway Kentucky Derby express yesterday -- for an hour and a half, anyway.The overlooked 3-year-old colt barreled home along the rail to win the $600,000 Louisiana Derby, the signature race at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. He edged Answer Lively by a head, who in turn edged Ecton Park by a head, in the weekend's second exciting three-horse finish in a major Kentucky Derby prep.On Saturday, Vicar, Wondertross and Cat Thief -- in that order -- swooped under the wire in a blanket finish in the $750,000 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park in South Florida.

LOS ANGELES -- Santa Anita Park, as recently as early 1990, entered into secret discussions with a board member of Hollywood Park that would have led to the elimination of racing at the Inglewood, Calif., track and the transfer of most of those dates to Santa Anita.Santa Anita went so far as to commission a major study that included a map of Hollywood Park property to be sold and the redistribution of racing dates.Information about the plan was obtained by the Times through court documents and depositions filed in conjunction with the Hollywood Park takeover attempt by R.D. Hubbard, owner of racetracks in New Mexico and Kansas.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Out here, nobody cares whether Joe De Francis has been a good steward of Maryland racing.The pressing issues are General Challenge's blinkers, Desert Hero's inexperience, Capsized's quarter crack, Honest Lady's gender and Prime Timber's resilience.Thank goodness.As racing fans focus on perhaps the most relevant race leading to the Kentucky Derby, the political squabbles and management concerns that mar Maryland racing can finally be set aside -- at least for a few days.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Out here, nobody cares whether Joe De Francis has been a good steward of Maryland racing.The pressing issues are General Challenge's blinkers, Desert Hero's inexperience, Capsized's quarter crack, Honest Lady's gender and Prime Timber's resilience.Thank goodness.As racing fans focus on perhaps the most relevant race leading to the Kentucky Derby, the political squabbles and management concerns that mar Maryland racing can finally be set aside -- at least for a few days.

NEW ORLEANS -- Kimberlite Pipe, a little-known horse dismissed at odds of 21-1, derailed Bob Baffert's runaway Kentucky Derby express yesterday -- for an hour and a half, anyway.The overlooked 3-year-old colt barreled home along the rail to win the $600,000 Louisiana Derby, the signature race at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. He edged Answer Lively by a head, who in turn edged Ecton Park by a head, in the weekend's second exciting three-horse finish in a major Kentucky Derby prep.On Saturday, Vicar, Wondertross and Cat Thief -- in that order -- swooped under the wire in a blanket finish in the $750,000 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park in South Florida.

California's three biggest tracks aren't out to steal the thunder from horse racing's time-honored Triple Crown. Still, by devising a neat little three-race series of their own, officials here are hoping they can create a little noise, and possibly divert some railbirds from their migratory path to Churchill Downs.The MGM Grand Classic Crown links million-dollar races at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar in a series one organizer called the "Triple Crown of California." While the newly minted Classic Crown clearly will be short on tradition, no one need question the money at stake.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Former Maryland standout Kent Desormeaux is on the verge of becoming the youngest thoroughbred rider to reach 3,000 victories.With his victory on favored Offshore Pirate in yesterday's first race at Santa Anita Park, Desormeaux, who turned 25 on Feb. 27, moved within four of the plateau. Chris McCarron, Sandy Hawley and Bill Shoemaker were the previous youngest. They reached 3,000 when they were 27.After riding at Santa Anita on Thursday and Friday, Desormeaux will be at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., Friday and at Golden Gate Fields in the Bay Area on Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The shake of the pills changed the face of Breeders' Cup XI yesterday, when three of the seven expected favorites drew outside posts and made their chances of winning just a bit riskier.Lure, Paradise Creek and Devil His Due -- all initially picked as choices by Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia -- either drew the 13 or 14 posts in bulky 14-horse fields. In two of the three instances, the poor posts resulted in changes in Battaglia's official odds line.In the case of Devil His Due, who starts from the 14 gate in the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic, Battaglia hastily changed his mind after the 5-year-old drew the extreme outside post.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Fires in the Los Angeles area have been restricted to the Malibu beach community about 50 miles west of Santa Anita Park and will not affect the Breeders' Cup.Last week, one of the San Gabriel mountains within site of the track was on fire and racing was canceled at Santa Anita on Thursday after the track became shrouded in smoke.But that fire was put out and the air is clear now except for the usual amount of smog.Bill Christine, who covers racing for the Los Angeles Times, said when he walked out of a Santa Anita conference room last week, "The smoke was so pungent that I thought the track could have been on fire."

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Lisa Lewis spotted the penny in the dirt and considered picking it up. But first, she wanted to know, was it heads or tails?When you've done the best you can with the first good 3-year-old you've ever had, you resort at last to superstition.That's where Lewis, a 29-year-old native of Maryland, finds herself on the eve of the Santa Anita Derby. And that's exactly where she wants to be."This is what you want all the time, the 3-year-old going to the big races," Lewis said outside her barn at Santa Anita Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Did he or didn't he? Did trainer Julio Canani say his filly, Sweet Catomine, was the best filly who ever lived - or didn't he? Canani was asked after Sweet Catomine won the Santa Anita Oaks last month at Santa Anita Park how he felt. It was widely reported that he said: "She is the best filly that ever lived. She's going to prove it this year." Now, as Sweet Catomine prepares to meet male horses for the first time tomorrow in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, Canani said that's not what he said.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Area racing fans will have the opportunity to watch and wager on Santa Anita Park's entire racing program when the Charles Town Races begins full-card simulcasts from the southern California track Wednesday.The Santa Anita simulcasts will be offered Wednesday through Sunday in addition to Charles Town's regularly scheduled cards with post time for Santa Anita's first race at 4 p.m. Santa Anita's post time is scheduled to move to 3:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 25 with the return to Daylight Savings Time.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Area racing fans will have the opportunity to watch and wager on Santa Anita Park's entire racing program when the Charles Town Races begin full-card simulcasts from the southern California track Wednesday.The Santa Anita simulcasts will be offered Wednesday through Sunday in addition to Charles Town's regularly scheduled cards with post time for Santa Anita's first race at 4 p.m. Santa Anita's post time is scheduled to move to 3:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 25 with the return to Daylight Savings Time.