Fresh as the result of sitting out the Best of Ohio series two weeks ago, Justalittlesmoke turned the tables on Needmore Flattery in the closing-day feature at ThistleDown, the $75,000 Diana Stakes for Ohio-bred fillies and mares.
This has not been an easy week for trainer Linda Rice. On Monday, she pre-entered Palace and La Verdad in the Breeders' Cup. On Wednesday, she entered both horses back for New York-bred stakes on Saturday's Empire Classic Day card at Belmont Park. After considering her options, she kept her horses home. Palace went on to win the Hudson at 4-5, while La Verdad scored an easy victory in the Iroquois at 3-10. The Hudson and Iroquois were each $150,000 races run at 6 1/2 furlongs.
The favored English filly Crowley’s Law notched her first stakes in the $103,800 River Memories at Woodbine on Saturday.
Following a last-place finish in the Empire Classic last year, Empire Dreams was gelded, his connections hoping the drastic move could provide dramatically different results. A year later, castration proved to be the answer as Empire Dreams rallied from fifth place to win Saturday’s $300,000 Empire Classic by three-quarters of a length over Royal Posse at Belmont Park. It was 4 3/4 lengths farther back to 71-1 Full of Mine in third.
Winx, a Street Cry filly, won her fifth consecutive stakes and third Group 1 in that span Saturday in the $2.16 million Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Australia.
Marcel won his Group 1 debut in Saturday’s $302,800 Racing Post Trophy for 2-year-olds at Doncaster Racecourse in England, rallying wide in the final three furlongs of the race at a straightaway mile on turf and avoiding the troubled that plagued odds-on favorite Foundation.
Sunday is closing day of the autumn meet at Santa Anita, the meet previously referred to as Oak Tree. Two low-odds overlays late on the card illustrate the value that sometimes can be found when fields are big.
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The clear skies that prevailed throughout the past week gave way to rain on Saturday morning at Keeneland, the change in weather having a major impact on the training schedules of a handful of prospective Breeders’ Cup starters, including Distaff contenders STOPCHARGINGMARIA and I’M A CHATTERBOX along with likely Sprint favorite PRIVATE ZONE.
The standout 2-year-old in California this year has been Songbird, the unbeaten winner of Grade 1 races for fillies at Del Mar and Santa Anita in September.
Rallying with a determined run, Get Jets kicked in the afterburners through the stretch to soar past Fish Trappe Road in Saturday’s $250,000 Sleepy Hollow Stakes.
