LEXINGTON, Ky. – Matching what only Wise Dan had done was remarkable enough. But considering that she was a filly running against males when she swept the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile and the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile in the same year, her feat is downright extraordinary.
No wonder Graham Motion got so choked up after Miss Temple City held on to win the $1 million Shadwell on Saturday at Keeneland.
“She’s pretty special to me,” Motion told NBC Sports.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Two Grade 1 races headline a strong Sunday card at Woodbine, highlighted by the $1 million Canadian International.
Roger Attfield will send out the lone Woodbine-based and Canadian-bred horse in the field, Danish Dynaformer, in search of the trainer’s first victory in the International. Danish Dynaformer is among nine horses who were considered probable for the International as of Sunday; he exits a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf over “good” going here Sept. 17. Attfield said Danish Dynaformer is most effective on firm turf.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Up With the Birds ran second in last year’s Grade 1 Canadian International, but the 6-year-old is not among the probables for Sunday’s edition. Trainer Malcolm Pierce said Up With the Birds is being pointed toward the Grade 3, $100,000 Sycamore Stakes over 1 1/2 miles on turf at Keeneland on Oct. 20.
ARCADIA, Calif.- In the morning and afternoon on Saturday, trainer Bob Baffert had his top hopes for the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on display at Santa Anita.
Drefong, winner of the King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 27, worked a half-mile in 46.80 seconds. In the afternoon, Lord Nelson won his third consecutive Grade 1 in the $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The first- and third-place finishes by Vyjack and Obviously in Saturday’s $201,725 City of Hope Mile gives trainer Phil D’Amato a strong roster of candidates for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 5, or a chance to diversify his team in other Breeders’ Cup races.
Sunday, D’Amato said Vyjack and Obviously will be considered for the BC Mile, but that Vyjack is also a candidate for the $1 million BC Dirt Mile on Nov. 4, and Obviously may be pre-entered in the $1 million BC Turf Sprint on Nov. 5.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – A record all-sources handle for a fall program at Keeneland was established Saturday when $15,926,396 was bet on the 10-race card, surpassing the previous fall record of $14,135,204 set Oct. 6, 2007.
The handle figure does not threaten the all-time single-day record at Keeneland, which was set earlier this year when more than $21.7 million was bet on the Blue Grass Stakes card of April 9. In fact, at least the top 10 single-day records at Keeneland all have come at spring meets.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Made You Look, the winner of the Grade 2 With Anticipation at Saratoga, worked a half-mile in 48.96 seconds over the Belmont turf course Saturday in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
Made You Look was on the inside of stablemate Rock Me Again, a 4-year-old filly. The pair shaded 23 seconds for the final quarter-mile, though Made You Look bobbled a time or two in the stretch.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though 2015 Travers winner Keen Ice finished third in his return to the races Friday at Belmont Park, trainer Todd Pletcher was satisfied enough with the result that the 4-year-old most likely will be pointed to the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 25.
Keen Ice, in his first start since running eighth in the Dubai World Cup in March, showed late interest in rallying to be third, beaten four lengths, by the loose-on-the-lead Wake Up in Malibu, who ran a mile in a very fast 1:33.27.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Union Strike, the winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 3, worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 on Saturday in preparation for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
Union Strike was held out of the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1 because of sore shins, but trainer Shelbe Ruis said on Saturday that the filly has recovered.
“There was nothing that major going on,” Ruis said. “It was the right thing to do. I think she’ll be ready.”
Runaway Lute, who won his first two starts against New York-breds before finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Hopeful, will return to statebred company for the $250,000 Sleepy Hollow Stakes on Oct. 22, trainer Gary Contessa said.
Runaway Lute won a maiden race and then the Rockville Centre Stakes by a combined 20 3/4 lengths during the Belmont spring/summer meet.
He was freshened for the Hopeful, where he had trouble from start to finish while getting beat 17 1/4 lengths. He fell past the finish line but was uninjured.
