Jess a Saint came rolling on the outside for a half-length win over Jet Black Rogue in the $1 million Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Breeders’ Futurity on Saturday night at Evangeline Downs. It was another neck back in third to First Corona Down.
With American Pharoah now retired, the baton has been passed in trainer Bob Baffert’s barn to Dortmund, who couldn’t handle American Pharoah earlier this year in the Kentucky Derby or Preakness but certainly looked ready to take on all comers Saturday with an overpowering victory in the Grade 3, $150,000 Native Diver Stakes at Del Mar.
Florent Geroux’s star has ascended rapidly the last two seasons or so, but before Geroux stepped onto the national stage, he honed his craft riding dark winter days here at Hawthorne – though Geroux’s second mount of this Hawthorne meet required little of that craft. Commissioner looked like the best horse on paper, and he asserted his superiority on the racetrack, carrying Geroux to a 2 1/2-length victory early Saturday evening in the Grade 2, $250,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup.
Az Ridge, last season’s Horse of the Meet at Turf Paradise when winning three stakes, picked right up where he left off as the 6-year-old gelding gamely captured Saturday’s $35,000 Walter R. Cluer Memorial.
Chiropractor, who had a spinal cord injury as a yearling that briefly jeopardized his survival, won his stakes debut in a 14-1 upset Saturday in the $302,250 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.
Surviving an inquiry may have been tougher than the race itself as Code Warrior ($2.80) ran her career record to 3 for 3 in winning the $50,405 Golden Gate Debutante on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.
The dreariest weather of the Churchill Downs fall meet couldn’t dampen the spirits of the people associated with Airoforce, who gave Julien Leparoux a sweep of both Grade 2 stakes Saturday when rallying to win the Grade 2, $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.
Adrianne G set a hot pace but still had plenty of homestretch energy to win the $50,000 Battle of New Orleans Stakes by about 1 1/2 lengths Saturday at Fair Grounds.
Rafting may have earned himself a chance at some of the important 3-year-old preps this winter during the Gulfstream Park Championship meet after rallying to a convincing 2 1/4-length victory Saturday over the promising Fellowship in the $75,000 Smooth Air Stakes at Gulfstream Park West.
Family Meeting earned her first stakes win and an incalculable amount of race experience with a surprise win Saturday in the $101,750 Jimmy Durante Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar.
