INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Through the final quarter-mile of Sunday’s $250,000 Clement Hirsch Turf Championship, Champ Pegasus’s chances of winning went from dim to glowing.
He was seventh with two furlongs remaining, seemingly going nowhere. Then, as he settled into the stretch, Champ Pegasus launched a rally that carried him to the front of the Grade 1 race over 1 1/4 miles on turf.
“We planned the whole thing that way,” trainer Richard Mandella deadpanned in the winner’s circle.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Rigoletta found circumstances to her liking in early stretch of Sunday’s $250,000 Oak Leaf Stakes at Hollywood Park. She was in a duel with the heavily favored Tell a Kelly toward the end of a Grade 1 race over 1 1/16 miles.
To jockey David Flores, the scenario was ideal for Rigoletta, even as the heavily favored Tell a Kelly loomed alongside.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After an 11-year hiatus, trainer James Bond appears headed back to the Breeders’ Cup after Tizway scored an authoritative five-length victory in Sunday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park.
While the victory did not earn Tizway an automatic bid into the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, the performance should be enough to get him selected into the field for $1 million race to be run Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Winter Memories made an electrifying move from the quarter pole to the eighth pole that not only carried her to an eye-catching victory in Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont Park but may have made her the favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf next month at Churchill Downs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Air Support overcame a soft Belmont Park turf course, a slow pace, and a jockey’s objection to win Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Pilgrim Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths and earn a spot in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf next month at Churchill Downs.
The Pilgrim was a Win and You’re In race for the Juvenile Turf on Nov. 6.
Soldat, who defeated Air Support by seven lengths in the With Anticipation last month at Saratoga, finished second by a head over Deciphering Dreams.
PARIS – Goldikova served notice that she will be in top form for her attempt at an unprecedented third consecutive Breeders’ Cup Mile title when she won the $333,000 Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on Sunday, defeating Paco Boy by a rather comfortable half-length in one of six Group 1 races on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe undercard.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Zenyatta was on a personal public-relations mission on the Hollywood Park backstretch Sunday, a day after she extended her unbeaten streak to 19 races with a thrilling finish in the $250,000 Lady’s Secret Stakes.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Haynesfield came out of his upset victory over Blame in Saturday’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup Invitational “in very good order,” according to assistant trainer Toby Sheets, who added that the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs will definitely be considered for the New York-bred colt’s next start.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Tell a Kelly remains the top 2-year-old filly in California, but circumstances change Sunday when she races a longer distance against a tougher field than she crushed in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs one month ago.
The Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes, over 1 1/16 miles at Hollywood Park, is the West Coast prep for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Tell a Kelly’s trainer, John Sadler, believes distance is a non-factor.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Blame and Paddy O’Prado – the favorites for Saturday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational, respectively – arrived at Belmont Park about 1:30 p.m. Friday, a day after their scheduled flight from Kentucky was canceled due to inclement weather.