AT THE POST

DAY 8 of 57

ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE 3,750 ON-TRACK HANDLE $332,466 OFF-TRACK HANDLE $2,452,513 TOTAL HANDLE $2,784,979 TODAY’S SIMULCAST SCHEDULE

Gulfstream Park, 11 a.m.; Aqueduct, 11:20 a.m.; Laurel Park, 11:30 a.m.; Tampa Bay, 11:35 a.m.; Fair Grounds, 1 p.m.; Santa Anita, 1:45 p.m.; Golden Gate, 2:30 p.m.; Turfway Park, 4:15 p.m.; Penn National, 5 p.m.; Delta Downs, 5:30 p.m.; Charles Town, 6 p.m.; Gulf (greyhounds); Sam Houston, 6 p.m.; Derby Lane (greyhounds); 6:30p.m.; Southland, 7:30 p.m. (greyhounds); Los Alamitos, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY’S STARS

Jockey Ramon Vazquez scored two victories Friday and missed a third by a neck. Vazquez rode Wicked West ($6.20, $4.40, $3.40) to victory in the third race and came back to win the seventh on Katabatic. Katabatic ($25.80, $10, $7.60) went off at 12-1 and won the 6-furlong race over Showit. Vazquez just missed winning the sixth on Oro Bird, who lost by a neck to Ricardo Santana Jr. and

Cheyenne Blues. The two wins gave Vazquez four on the young season, as he now trails David

Cohen and David Cabrera who each won a race Friday to give them eight on the campaign. Doug

O’Neill moved into a tie for first in the trainer standings with Ingrid Mason after Edgar Morales led

Ready Aim ($6.20, $4.20, $3.60) to the wire in Friday’s fifth race.

CHANTELINE LEADS AMERICAN BEAUTY FIELD

Chanteline, a two-time allowance winner at Oaklawn and runner-up in last year’s $150,000 Carousel Stakes, is the 5-2 program favorite in today’s $125,000 American Beauty Stakes for older female sprinters. Chanteline is trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen.

GUN RUNNER GETS HIS SHOT

Gun Runner will start from one of the outside posts in today’s Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Hallandale Beach, Fla., a lessthan-ideal situation even for the top horse in the sport right now. Gun Runner’s connections wanted him in the inaugural edition of the Pegasus a year ago, only to have their entry denied. There was concern that Gun Runner, who was stabled at Fair Grounds — which had barns under quarantine because two other horses were ill with a highly contagious virus — shouldn’t be permitted to be around the Pegasus field because of the potential health risk. This time, there was no denying Gun Runner’s path to the Pegasus. The only question is if any of the other 11 horses in the field can deny him the $7 million winner’s share of the $16 million purse, as the newly crowned Horse of the Year will be the heavy favorite to win what will be his final race before retirement. Gun Runner finished third in the 2016 Kentucky Derby but didn’t run the Preakness or Belmont. In his first race of 2017, he won the Grade III Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn. Today’s field is loaded with firepower, with five of the top six finishers from November’s Breeders’ Cup Classic — Gun Runner, Collected, West Coast, War Story and Gunnevera — meeting again.