With a little help from the stewards, jockey Mario Gutierrez was perfect with five mounts Friday at Santa Anita, the second time in his career he has recorded five victories on a program.
The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale reverts to its successful one-day format as it attempts to bounce back to the solid figures it posted earlier in its short history.
All through the 1980s, when I was general manager of William du Pont III’s Pillar Stud, we always were on the lookout for stakes-winning mares, even with relatively modest pedigrees. As disciples of Joe Estes, who conclusively demonstrated in the 1940s and 1950s that stakes-winning mares were by far the most successful producers, we always were happy to pay modest prices for mares of proven ability.
Annual Report got squeezed soon after the start and had to go six wide in the stretch. No problem, not with Joe Bravo in the irons.
Joe Talamo will ride the longshot Hard Aces in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Oct. 31, trainer John Sadler said Saturday.
A couple top candidates for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, I’m a Chatterbox and Stopchargingmaria, were the biggest names on Saturday’s work tab, but it was an outsider for the BC Dirt Mile, Bradester, who turned in arguably the most impressive work on a frigid morning at Keeneland, where the temperature dipped into the high 30s by the time the track opened for training at 5:30 a.m.
Mongolian Khan and Trip to Paris strengthened their claims as leading contenders for the Group 1 Melbourne Cup on Nov. 3, with a one-two finish Saturday in the $2.17 million Caulfield Cup at about 1 1/2 miles on turf at Caulfield Racecourse in Australia.
After watching two of his four potential Breeders’ Cup horses put in workouts Saturday morning at Belmont Park, trainer Christophe Clement had reason to be both happy and frustrated.
Fascinating Rock, a 10-1 shot ridden by Pat Smullen, rallied between horses in the final quarter-mile to win the richest race of his career in Saturday’s $2,066,386 Champion Stakes at Ascot.
The featured race Sunday at Belmont Park is the Grade 2 Matron for 2-year-old fillies. It has pulled a solid field of six as the anchor of the early pick four.
