SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There never was any real suspense in the race for leading owner, trainer, and jockey at the sesquicentennial Saratoga meet. On Sunday, one day before the meet ended, the leaders in those categories were honored in a ceremony in the winner’s circle following the seventh race.
Ken and Sarah Ramsey have won 22 races, setting a single-meet record at Saratoga, 11 more than Darley Stable and Drawing Away. The Ramseys had horses in three of Monday’s 10 races.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Steve Asmussen won the Grade 3 Sapling Stakes for the fifth time with Dunkin Bend, and Miss Behaviour romped in the Sorority Stakes for fillies, as Monmouth Park presented its premier 2-year-old stakes Sunday.
The $96,000 Sapling and the $104,000 Sorority were the last major stakes of the meet.
Dunkin Bend rallied widest of all to take the four-horse Sapling by 1 1/4 lengths over Yes I’m Lucky. Ricardo Santana Jr. was aboard as Dunkin Bend, the even-money favorite, improved to 2 for 3 in his stakes debut.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The betting public expressed its confidence in Sweet Reason early and often prior to Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga. Sweet Reason, with a maiden victory in the slop Aug. 9, opened at 8-5 and floated up to be the 5-2 second choice in a race filled with strong pedigrees and high-profile connections.
Leah Gyarmati, the trainer of Sweet Reason, was sure of only one thing.
“I knew she’d come running at the end,” Gyarmati said. “I just didn’t know where that would put us.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – For a filly who can make things more difficult than need be, Beholder had an easy time of it in returning to action Sunday at Del Mar, romping in the $100,000 Torrey Pines Stakes for 3-year-old fillies in what was pretty much a paid workout.
Caviar N Champagne led from start to finish to win the $50,000 Rose DeBartolo Memorial by 2 3/4 lengths at Thistledown on Sunday.
Ridden by Scott Spieth for trainer Jeff Radosevich, Caviar N Champagne led while under a snug hold to midstretch. Spieth kept the 4-year-old filly off the rail and went to work on his mount at the eighth pole, keeping her mind on business as she stopped the clock for 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:46.20.
Pay the Man, under Ricky Feliciano, chased the winner but finished second, 2 3/4 lengths in front of Startin Something in third.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar officials will consider expanding the racing schedule for the track’s 2014 summer meeting after field sizes showed a notable increase at the current meeting, which ends Wednesday.
Track President Joe Harper said Sunday that adding races to the existing 37-day calendar would be a likely option instead of adding racing days. “It certainly is a thought, just seeing how strong the entries have been for most of the meet,” Harper said. “I think it’s something we need to talk about.”
Needmore Flattery remained undefeated after posting a 6 1/2-length victory in the $50,000 Kevin Goemmer Tah Dah Stakes at the River Downs at Beulah Park meet Sunday.
Jockey Irwin Rosendo kept the 2-year-old filly off the early pace in the six-furlong statebred event. Rosendo roused Needmore Flattery in the stretch, and she got through along the rail to take a 1 1/2-length lead at the eighth pole.
Needmore Flattery poured it on late and cruised to her fifth victory in as many starts. It was only the second time she has faced horses of her own gender.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – San Nicola Thunder ($49.10) notched his first stakes win in Sunday’s $125,400 Vice Regent, giving jockey Justin Stein a sweep of the two stakes on the Woodbine card.
Stein, who also won the $104,800 Avowal Stakes on Part the Seas, rated San Nicola Thunder in fifth in the one-mile turf route before they commenced a three-wide rally exiting the turn. San Nicola Thunder hit the front near the eighth pole and then held on to prevail by a neck over another son of leading Ontario sire Silent Name, County Lineman.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Part the Seas, making her first start since being claimed for $62,500 here Aug. 3, rallied from seventh place to assume command in midstretch and went on to score by three-quarters of a length in Sunday’s $104,800 Avowal Stakes over seven furlongs on a firm turf course.
Justin Stein was aboard Part the Seas, who became a stakes winner in the Avowal for her new trainer, Mike De Paulo, and the Bear Stables of Danny Dion.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown thought long and hard about whether to run or scratch Grade 1 winner Samitar from Sunday’s $100,000 Speed Boat Stakes due to the condition of the turf course, which had been softened by rain over the previous 48 hours. But in the end, he made the right decision, leaving Samitar in to register a hard-fought neck victory over a game Baffle Me in the overnight stakes for fillies and mares.
