Da Hoss

Chalk up another Memorial Day weekend stakes win for a runner stabled at the Fair Hill Training Center, the 400-horse complex located across the road from the Fair Hill steeplechase course in Cecil County.On Saturday night, Prestonwood Farm's Da Hoss, from the Fair Hill-based Michael Dickinson stable, won the $150,000 Jersey Derby at Garden Stable Park.Then yesterday at Pimlico Race Course, John R. S. Fisher shipped in Clever Clever from Fair Hill and watched the 5-year-old mare win the $35,050 Gold Digger Stakes in a downpour on a soggy turf course.

Now the waiting begins.Despite some hopeful signs, the future of Colonial Downs remains questionable after its second thoroughbred meeting ended yesterday with on-track attendance significantly off and on-track betting slightly down from 1997.Off-season activity will be crucial for Virginia's first thoroughbred track, which has drawn raves for the condition of its racing surfaces, but probably faces a major reorganization.Track chairman Jeffrey Jacobs has vowed to "make some hard decisions about the future of Colonial Downs," one of which is whether to initiate Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Bobby Frankel, the Hall of Fame trainer with the country's strongest stable, broke one of racing's most infamous streaks last year in the Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park. He began the day having saddled 36 straight losers in Breeders' Cup races. He entered six horses and, finally, in the Sprint, won with Squirtle Squirt. His Breeders' Cup record entering Saturday's series is 1-for-42. It's difficult to imagine his not winning at least one more with another solid contingent.

Leading rider Mark Johnston finds himself in an enviable spot as Laurel Park wraps up its 30-day live summer meet this weekend.He rides the horse to beat in each of the track's closing stakes -- Warning Glance, the likely odds-on favorite today in the $50,000-added Chieftain Handicap, despite carrying high weight of 120 pounds; and Calipha, who is more of an iffy proposition tomorrow when she makes her turf debut in the $75,000 All Brandy Stakes."

Pat Day flew in from Kentucky to ride the lightly raced Coup D' Argent in yesterday's Baltimore Breeders' Cup at Laurel Park. But even Day, the veteran jockey aboard the youthful colt, could not overcome a record-tying performance by the overwhelming favorite, Pyramid Peak.Pyramid Peak, a 4-year-old Mt. Livermore colt who ran in last year's Kentucky Derby, led at every call to win the scratch-marred 1 1/8 -mile Grade III handicap. His winning time of 1 minute, 47 3/5 seconds matched the track record of Excellent Tipper set in 1992.

Short Stay, a Maryland Million winner, and Goldminer's Dream, who was bumped from the starting lineup in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, are favored in two rich weekend stakes at Laurel Park.Nationally, things are quiet in stakes activity a week after the Breeders' Cup.The Northern Dancer Stakes at Laurel, which carries a $100,000 purse and is restricted to Maryland-breds, is the richest event in the country today -- along with stakes that have similar-sized purses in California, New York and Kentucky.

Turf superintendent Robbie Mitten cut the yellow ribbon to officially open Laurel Park's new turf course yesterday, and Lukipela, with jockey Steve Hamilton up, led a parade of prancing racehorses onto the bright green mix of red fescue and blue grass. With a cool breeze and bright sun in their faces, the horses and riders enjoyed their morning work, as they tested the turf that so many have been waiting for. "It's perfect. Excellent," said jockey Horacio Karamanos after working a horse for trainer Carlos Garcia and looking at Mitten and Laurel Park chief operating officer Lou Raffetto.

As the victories mounted for Sham Say, so, too, did the offers to buy her. Eugene F. Ford, her Bethesda owner, might have accepted $750,000. He had paid $24,000 for the modestly bred filly as a yearling in 1986 at Timonium. But his wife, Alice, and partner Zelma Morrison wouldn't let him accept a measly three-quarters of a million dollars. After Sham Say's seventh straight victory, Ford finally received the offer they couldn't refuse: $2 million. That was in February of her 3-year-old season.

We're two days from the Eclipse Awards banquet, and we still don't know the winners. For the first time, they won't be announced until Tuesday's dinner in Florida.In the past, all but Horse of the Year were announced well in advance so that the banquet was devoid of suspense. This year, you won't know until Tuesday night (or Wednesday morning when you pick up The Sun) how your picks matched up with those of the voters -- turf writers, racing secretaries and some employees of the Daily Racing Form.

NEW YORK - The gray colt in the hands of Michael Dickinson, "Mad Genius" of Tapeta Farm, has come full circle. Tapit has gone from neophyte brimming with promise, to afterthought to contender, with an explosive late run on Saturday that carried him to a narrow victory in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. It's a large and compelling piece of a Kentucky Derby puzzle still hopelessly scattered after the last three 1 1/8 -mile prep races that are intended to finally separate the wheat from chaff.