LEXINGTON, Ky. – There seems to be a pattern developing here.
Last October, Chad Brown swept the twin Belmont Park turf stakes for 2-year-olds when Noble Tune won the Pilgrim Stakes and Watsdachances took the Miss Grillo. A week later, Brown was at Keeneland to send out Dayatthespa to victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.
“I definitely want to stay with this horse,” Leslie Mawing said after guiding Life Is a Joy to his third straight victory in the Charlie Palmer Futurity on Saturday at the Big Fresno Fair.
What’s not to like?
Life Is a Joy won the one-mile race for 2-year-olds as he had won his previous two races – on the lead. He won his debut Aug. 17 at Golden Gate Fields and a Sept. 8 allowance race there. Both of those races were at six furlongs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – At one point this year, it looked like Boisterous was prepared to pick up the mantle from his injured and more celebrated stablemate Point of Entry and become a force in the turf division.
After winning back-to-back graded stakes including the Grade 1 Man o’ War here in July, things went awry for Boisterous. So instead of pointing to next month’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, Boisterous will make what most likely will be his final career start in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Knickerbocker Stakes at Belmont Park.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – If not for last-to-first rallies by My Conquestadory and Emollient, favorites would have been blanked in the nine graded stakes that comprised the FallStars events on opening weekend of the Keeneland fall meet.
My Conquestadory took the Darley Alcibiades on Friday at 6-5, while Emollient was 2-1 in winning the Juddmonte Spinster on Sunday. Favorites in the other seven stakes all went down to defeat, most notably 1-2 choices Wise Dan in the Shadwell Turf Mile and Groupie Doll in the Thoroughbred Club of America.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Josie Carroll’s barn had a very productive hour and change here Sunday, winning the Grade 3, $174,400 Grey Stakes with Ami’s Holiday and, two races later, taking the Grade 3, $155,100 Durham Cup with James Street.
Ami’s Holiday, a 2-year-old colt making just his second start in the 1 1/16-mile Grey, earned his first stakes victory, while James Street, a 6-year-old horse making his 27th career start in the 1 1/8-mile Durham Cup, got his third stakes win.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup program at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 is turning into Ladies’ Day for trainer Tom Proctor.
Proctor has the 5-year-old mare Marketing Mix as a leading domestic contender for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf that afternoon. On the same program, Proctor plans to run the 3-year-old Pontchatrain and the 4-year-old Purim’s Dancer in the Grade 3, $100,000 Sen. Ken Maddy Stakes for fillies and mares on the hillside turf course.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mark Casse said My Conquestadory, the flashy winner of the Darley Alcibiades Stakes on the opening-day program Friday at Keeneland, will train on dirt for the first time this week as he considers the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies for the unbeaten filly.
ELMONT, N.Y. – While two graded turf stakes for juveniles highlight Sunday’s 11-race program at Belmont Park, there is a pretty good $100,000 overnight stakes for dirt sprinters that should garner some attention as well.
The $100,000 Duck Dance, which could be a prep for the Grade 3, $200,000 Bold Ruler here on Oct. 26, drew a salty nine-horse field, led by the multiple stakes-winning 8-year-old Caixa Eletronica.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – At least one smart-aleck made this hypothetical wagering prop on Twitter on the number of winners that trainer Gennadi Dorochenko would send out at the Keeneland fall meet: one-half.
Well, less than two minutes into the 17-day meet, the “over” was a winner. As many of the Keeneland faithful were still filing through the gates for the opening-day card Friday – and the vast majority of those already here watched in stunned silence – the Dorochenko-trained Araksia rolled to a 1 1/4-length victory, returning $41.80.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While perennial leaders Ken and Sarah Ramsey and Frank Calabrese figure to battle it out for the top spot in the owners race this winter at Gulfstream Park, there could be a new force to reckon with in the division, the ever-expanding White Wabbit Wacing LLC.
