Owner Ron Paolucci’s Loooch Racing Stables received a quick return on the $62,500 investment he made to claim Sr. Quisqueyano just four weeks ago when his new acquisition held gamely down the stretch to upset Saturday’s $250,000 Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park.
The Louisiana-bred gelding String King had come close to winning graded races a few times in his long, lucrative career, but in the Grade 3 Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap on Saturday at Fair Grounds, he got the job done.
Julien Leparoux has a reputation of being a sit-and-wait jockey, but a sudden move aboard Pink Poppy down the backstretch was the key to an 11-1 upset Saturday in the $100,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park.
Albano, the heavy favorite making the first start of his 4-year-old season in the Louisiana Stakes at Fair Grounds, checked in a one-paced third, but the Jones-trained 9-1 shot Hard Aces took care of business.
Lilli Kurtinecz sunk all she had and then some in a horse named Manchurian High. Kurtinecz even borrowed money from her parents to buy the gelding more than a year ago.
When the Florida Sunshine Millions races on Saturday were widened from being exclusively for Florida-breds to also include horses bred in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Weekend Hideaway’s home state of New York, it opened a possibility not originally expected for the winter. It turned out to be a gift-wrapped present for Weekend Hideaway, who crushed six rivals, all Florida-breds, in the $100,000 Sunshine Millions Sprint.
The behavior of Texas Red before and during a six-furlong workout at Santa Anita on Saturday left trainer Keith Desormeaux encouraged about the start of the 3-year-old’s 2015 season in less than two weeks.
Bouncing back from two sub-par performances to close out 2014, Willet flashed her vintage form to win Saturday’s 94th running of the $100,000 Interborough Stakes with a strong stretch run.
The connections of Paddy’s Notes came to Fair Grounds last fall with an Indiana-bred claiming sprinter. Now, who knows what they have?
On a Santa Anita card with apparently limited overlays, the best way to fashion multi-race wagers Sunday is to limit the downside.
