ELMONT, N.Y. - Hot maiden winners Championofthenile and Get Jets were the fancy of the betting public, but it was the stakes winner Sudden Surprise who got the better of those two, turning back an inside bid from Get Jets to win Sunday’s $150,000 Bertram F. Bongard Stakes for New York-bred juvenile males by a neck at Belmont Park.
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DRF Past Performances
ARCADIA, Calif. – Smooth Roller and Bayern are both age 4. For one, he’s only just begun. For the other, his best days are past.
That was the implication on Saturday at Santa Anita, when Smooth Roller, making just the fourth start of his career, won the Grade 1, $300,750 Awesome Again Stakes, earning a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race Bayern won last year but will fall well short of making this year.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A months-long plan to start Photo Call in Saturday’s $301,250 Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita worked to perfection when the Irish-bred filly overcame a touch of trouble to win the Grade 1 turf race for fillies and mares.
Trainer Graham Motion was quick to credit jockey Drayden Van Dyke for his tactics through the stretch.
“Drayden gave her a great ride,” Motion said. “He’s a patient rider.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Two smacks from the whip from jockey Mike Smith in early stretch was all Songbird needed for an easy win in Saturday’s $300,000 Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Santa Anita.
The win gave Songbird an automatic berth for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland on Oct. 31, provided she is supplemented to the Breeders’ Cup program for $100,000 in October. Songbird is not currently nominated for the Breeders’ Cup, resulting in the need for the six-figure nomination fee.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Very little was missing from Big Blue Kitten’s resume when he entered the gate for Saturday’s $600,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. A Grade 1 victory at Belmont Park was among the only gaps.
On a glorious fall afternoon on Long Island, Big Blue Kitten took care of that in style, catapulting to the front in upper stretch and capturing the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch. In the process, he ran 1 1/2 miles in 2:23.39, obliterating the Belmont Widener Turf course record by nearly a full second. Fantastic Light owned the mark of 2:24.36 set in 2001.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Yes, trainer Richard Mandella said, it was about as easy as it looked. Beholder, after beating males in the Pacific Classic last month, dropped back in to a race restricted to females and easily captured the Grade 1, $300,750 Zenyatta Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Rock Fall scored his second gritty victory in a row to take the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont Park on Saturday.
The Vosburgh, a Win and You're In for the Breeders' Cup Sprint, was Rock Fall's seventh consecutive win. He has not been beaten since he finished eighth in his career debut in April 2014.
The first five wins of Rock Fall's streak were relatively easy. He won his maiden, three allowance or optional-claiming races, and the Grade 2 True North in June by open margins.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The heat was on Nyquist from the start on Saturday, but he survived an early challenge from two rivals, a late bid from another, plus a stewards’ inquiry to remain unbeaten in four starts by capturing the Grade 1, $300,750 FrontRunner Stakes for 2-year-olds on a hot, muggy afternoon at Santa Anita.
“They’re making us sweat on a hot day,” owner Paul Reddam said when the inquiry was adjudicated in his favor.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Linda Rice said if she was impressed enough with the way La Verdad performed in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont Park, she would want to supplement the filly to next month’s $1 million Breeder’s Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
After watching La Verdad record a front-running, half-length victory in a very fast time of 1:15.16 for 6 1/2 furlongs in the Gallant Bloom, Rice indicated that the La Verdad is indeed Breeders’ Cup bound.
“I believe so,” Rice said. “I think she needed the race.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - The undefeated Rachel's Valentina will bypass next Saturday's Grade 1 Alcibiades and train up to the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland on Oct. 31, trainer Todd Pletcher said Saturday morning at Belmont Park.