The favored Hold for More ($2.80) won his sixth straight when rallying past his Minnesota-bred competition for a three-length win in the $80,000 Minnesota Derby, a one-mile-and-seventy-yard test.
The favored Rallydownthealley ($4.00) made a dramatic late surge to emerge victorious in a three-way photo and garner top honors in the $100,000 Donna Reed, a one-mile-and-seventy-yard event for Iowa-bred fillies and mares.
Moreno, winner of the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes in 2014 and the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic this year – both $1.5 million races – has been retired from racing, trainer Eric Guillot said Sunday.
In a career spanning nearly six decades, King T. Leatherbury has been one of the most consistent and prolific race-winning trainers in the history of the Thoroughbred sport. He is one of only five members of his profession with more than 6,000 victories. Yet until Friday, his feats had gone unrecognized by the Racing Hall of Fame.
Equality, Michigan’s perennial leading stallion, was well represented Saturday on the Michigan Sire Stakes card at Hazel Park, with his foals winning three of the evening’s six stakes races.
With Shared Belief and California Chrome out for the year for some time now, the handicap division has been begging for someone to step up and take control. So we all looked at Saturday’s renewal of the Whitney at Saratoga and its seven Grade 1 stakes winners for deliverance. And this Whitney certainly delivered. In spades.
Chrome Mine improved her record in 2015 to 3 for 3 with a victory in the $51,050 Sadie Hawkins Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint for West Virginia-bred fillies and mares, at Charles Town on Saturday night. Chrome Mine paid $7.40 as the second choice in the field of eight, finishing a neck ahead of Red Hot Diva.
Belle Hill cemented her status as the leading 3-year-old filly in the Pacific Northwest with a resounding victory Saturday in the $65,000 Washington Oaks at Emerald Downs.
Getting into traffic trouble is a common occurrence in Southern California. Ask anyone who navigates the freeways here. Since arriving from France, Elektrum had found similar traffic troubles in several of her local grass races, but she broke through for a stakes victory on Saturday at Del Mar by proving best in a blanket finish in the Grade 2, $250,750 John C. Mabee Stakes for older female grass runners.
Solomon Bay took advantage when a pace battle cooked 4-5 favorite Rosary Man, gamely prevailing in Saturday’s $53,550 Robert Dupret Derby at Santa Rosa.
