(Edited Gulfstream Park report)

Patricia Generazio’s remarkable 6-year-old gelding Presious Passion set brisk early fractions and was seven lengths in front after one mile of the $125,000 Mac Diarmida Stakes (Grade 2) at Gulfstream Park, but he had enough left to hold on for a half-length victory over Fab Oak Stable and Kona Stable’s Quasicobra at the finish line of the 1 3/8 miles turf test.

(Edited Aqueduct Racetrack report)

Tri-Bone Stable’s What a Pear is unbeaten in three career starts. Pumpkin Shell, after four failed attempts to win a race, broke her maiden on Dec. 4, then came back on Jan. 10 to win Aqueduct Racetrack’s Busanda.

Ron Correll
Senior columnist
Tracksideview.com

Dunkirk became very prominent on the Kentucky Derby trail when he demolished an allowance field Thursday at Gulfstream Park in South Florida.

By Francis LaBelle Jr.
Aqueduct Racetrack

The toughest part of handicapping Thursday’s 31st running of the $70,200 Hollie Hughes for New York-breds at six furlongs was figuring out who would take the lead.

(Edited Gulfstream Park report)

Patricia Generazio’s 5-year-old gelding Presious Passion returns home to Gulfstream Park from a runner-up effort in the Sunshine Millions Turf at Santa Anita in his last start, and Merriefield Farm and Charles Noell’s 8-year-old gelding Always First ships in from Maryland to meet in Saturday’s $150,000 Mac Diarmida Stakes (Grade 2).

ARCADIA, Calif. – Regarded as a leading Kentucky Derby prospect before finishing eleventh in last year’s Florida Derby, Elysium Fields resurfaced as a 4-year-old Thursday to score an impressive 1¾-length victory over pace-setter Fiery Trippi in Santa Anita’s $52,712 allowance feature at 1 1/16 miles.

With Rafael Bejarano in the saddle, Elysium Fields surged between horses in the closing yards to draw clear while covering the distance in 1:43.45 after the runner-up had set some pedestrian early fractions under Mike…

Ron Correll
Senior columnist
Tracksideview.com

Dunkirk became very prominent on the Kentucky Derby trail when he demolished an allowance field Thursday at Gulfstream Park in South Florida.

What was impressive about Dunkirk’s win in the mile-and-an-eighth race was, he started from the eight hole and was forced at least that wide going into the first turn. American Dance, who came out of the six slot, pushed Sincero and Dunkirk almost into the parking lot as they rounded the…

ARCADIA, Calif. — John Velazquez, a native of Puerto Rico and a two-time Eclipse award winning jockey, has been selected by a vote of his peers as the 2009 winner of the Santa Anita George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. The Woolf Announcement was made Thursday on HRTV by retired Hall of Fame jockey and past Woolf winner Gary Stevens.

Presented annually by Santa Anita since 1950, this year marks the 60th presentation of one of racing’s most prestigious awards.

Zambesi Sun, a highly regarded Group 1 winner in Europe who had been scheduled to make his United States debut in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on Pro-Ride on March 7, instead has been entered in Sunday’s San Luis Obispo Handicap scheduled for 1½ miles on turf by Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who still plans to run the English-bred horse in the Big ’Cap.

NEW ORLEANS, La. – John Wieczorek’s Shytoe Lafeet, clearly second best behind Stormy West in the Furl Sail Handicap and Marie Krantz Memorial Handicap, sidesteps that rival and looms the strong 8-5 morning-line choice in the $125,000 Bayou Handicap for older fillies and mares Saturday at Fair Grounds.