ARCADIA, Calif. - The long way was the best way for Ben’s Duchess in Sunday’s $100,000 LA Woman Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.
Ben’s Duchess rallied five-wide in a field of five to win the Grade 3 LA Woman for her first stakes win.
The win left trainer John Sadler contemplating a start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31 for Ben’s Duchess, who races for Doubledown Stables.
The 2-year-old Ultra and 3-year-old Make Believe gave leading French trainer Andre Fabre important wins in Group 1 stakes on the undercard of Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe program at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris.
Make Believe’s win in the $336,000 Prix de la Foret at seven furlongs may lead to a start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Wild Dude is financing his way to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
Saturday, Wild Dude won the $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, the second time this year he has won a race that featured a berth to the BC Sprint through the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program. The only drawback is that Wild Dude was not made eligible to the Breeders’ Cup as a weanling, which will force co-owners Green Smith and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer to pay a $100,000 nomination fee later this month.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Life as a gelding has changed No Silent.
Saturday, the 6-year-old won his first graded stakes in the $101,500 Eddie D Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita. The Grade 3 Eddie D was No Silent’s third consecutive win, the longest winning streak of his 23-race career.
While it was not immediately clear whether No Silent would be sent to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Oct. 31, the win showed that No Silent is in the best form of his career.
“He ran the best race of his life as a 6-year-old,” trainer Gary Mandella said.
ELMONT, N.Y .- It was not the start jockey Joe Bravo or trainer Dominick Schettino had envisioned for Greenpointcrusader in Saturday’s Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, but it was a finish they will never forget.
Breaking last after being impeded leaving the starting gate, Greenpointcrusader recovered nicely and rallied six wide in the stretch to record a dominant 4 1/2-length victory in the $500,000 Champagne and earning a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Grand Arch narrowly held off The Pizza Man in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile, as both 6-year-old geldings will head off to the Breeders’ Cup in separate events.
Grand Arch got a perfect stalking trip under Luis Saez and needed every bit of it to finish a head in front of the late-surging The Pizza Man in the $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile, the last of five graded stakes on a very eventful Saturday program at Keeneland.
“I just waited for a little room until the top of the stretch, and I got it,” said Saez. “Then I heard two guys flying up. We held on.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – At this time last month, Brody’s Cause was a badly beaten maiden, having lost his only start by 25 lengths in an Ellis Park grass race. But with a developing 2-year-old, a lot of improvement can take place in a short period of time, a point on display Saturday when he rallied from the clouds to score an 11-1 upset in the $500,000, Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tepin wasn’t getting beat any noses today.
The filly, who endured two heartbreakingly narrow defeats at the hands of rallying rivals at Saratoga over the summer, drew clear in the stretch for an emphatic seven-length victory in the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.
“About the eighth pole, I was looking for somebody to come running,” trainer Mark Casse said. “She’s lost such tough ones.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Fioretti gave her connections easily the biggest wins of their careers when she pulled a 17-1 upset Saturday in the Grade 2, $250,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland.
Always in a good striking spot while clear from the outside, Fioretti surged to the lead in the upper stretch before finishing three-quarters of a length before Heykittykittykitty in a field of eight fillies and mares. Judy the Beauty, the even-money favorite, was another half-length back in third after encountering traffic at a critical juncture.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Chad Brown completed a double of sorts at Belmont Park on Saturday.
Last week, Brown sent out the first- and second-place finishers in the biggest turf race of the Belmont fall meet for males when Big Blue Kitten and Slumber ran one-two. On Saturday, Brown took down the exacta in the filly-and-mare counterpart, the Grade 1 Flower Bowl, with Stephanie's Kitten and Danza Cavallo.
This is the second straight year that Stephanie's Kitten has won the Flower Bowl.
