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Your next connection could be your best connection. That's the CliffsNotes version of how Jeff Gural, the owner, went from a fringe stakes player to handing the Hambletonian trophy to himself in the winner's circle at the Meadowlands, the track he operates as CEO, after Nordic Catcher S's record-setting victory.
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The 100th Hambletonian has been completed, and one horse rose above the rest in dominant fashion. Nordic Catcher S and driver-trainer Ake Svanstedt put on a dramatic two-week display, first with a stellar wire-to-wire performance in his elimination, then taking the $1 million classic's top prize last Saturday (August 2) while employing a different style.
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The 3-year-old pacing filly Miki And Minnie, just named #1 in the North American Top Ten polls, didn't take long to show the talent that earned her that spot, winning the single division of the third preliminary leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at Harrah's Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon.
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Trainer George Weaver told anyone who asked his opinion about the four fillies he ran in Thursday’s $150,000 Galway Stakes at Saratoga that he truly believed each had an equal opportunity to win the race. And in the end, it was the longest price of those four 3-year-old fillies, the 17-1 Pop Idol, who proved him right when leading at every call en route to a one-length victory over Abientot, with Le Cevere checking home an unlucky and wide-running third as the tepid 2-1 favorite.
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Marcus Miller is feeling at home in Indiana, sitting second in the driver standings at Harrah’s Hoosier Park this season, and looking forward to his first time competing in the track’s Grade 2 Dan Patch Stakes.
David Aragona's TimeformUS Highlight Horse for Sunday, August 10, at Saratoga.
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Multiple stakes winner Surly Furious has earned more than $600,000 while racing at 10 tracks in six states, plus Canada. But the 7-year-old gelding has always felt at home at Presque Isle Downs, where he began his career – and where now returns to race for the first time since September 2023 in Monday's $100,000 Avery Whisman Memorial.
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Comport goes for a nice payday on Sunday as he runs in the $200,000 Ellis Park Juvenile, one of two stakes for 2-year-old fillies on the card, along with the $200,000 Ellis Park Debutante.
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Wins haven't been easy to come by for trainer Kay Cooper, who had a 34-4-9-0 record at the meet as of first post Friday. But in Sunday's race 5, a $23,000 maiden special weight for fillies 3 and up that will be contested at six furlongs, Cooper has Emerald's top rider, Kevin Krigger, aboard one of her horses for the first time this year and a very real chance to saunter into the winner's circle.
A diverse buying bench at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga became even more dynamic with the addition of some new faces to the ranks of those buying high-ticket horses, including Randy and Jenny Boyd of Tennessee, who struck at $2.6 million for a Gun Runner filly out of Grade 1 winner Paradise Woods.
