War Dancer doesn’t seem to mind traveling. Since early March, he has raced at five different tracks in Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, and finally Virginia, and has run well every time.
Saturday night at Colonial Downs, War Dancer ($16.80) displayed grit and determination under regular rider Alan Garcia to prevail in a three-horse photo in the Grade 2, $500,000 Virginia Derby.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Book Review was back to doing what she does best in Saturday’s $200,000 A Gleam Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park – running around one turn.
Making her first start since February, Book Review closed with a wide rally to win the Grade 2 A Gleam, her third stakes win in a sprint. The victory was worth much more than the $120,000 first-place prize for owners Gary and Mary West. Book Review earned a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita in November.
Nellie Cashman needed seven starts and a drop into Pennsylvania-bred company at Penn National to finally clear her maiden condition. But she didn’t need any further experience to succeed in a graded stakes.
Lightly regarded because of her 1-for-7 record and low-profile connections, Nellie Cashman ($41.20) provided trainer Francis “Tres” Abbott and jockey Forest Boyce with their first career graded stakes victories in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. - Late Saturday afternoon, Andria Terrill remained in Massachusetts General Hospital, where she has been since July 8 after suffering three fractures at the base of her skull in a spill at Suffolk Downs.
Reached Saturday evening and asked about her condition, Terrill responded via text, “I should be fine with no problems.” In a subsequent text message, she indicated that she expected to be in the hospital until at least Monday.
BOSSIER CITY, La. – Sunday’s super-pick-five carryover at Louisiana Downs grew to $226,225 after there was not a unique ticket with all five winners Saturday. If there is not a unique winner, then 50 percent of the day’s net pool is divided among those with the most winners, while the other 50 percent is carried over.
On Saturday, there were 314 tickets with all five winners that returned $440.50 apiece.
The super pick five has not been hit since June 28. The 50-cent-minimum wager begins with Sunday’s fourth race. Post time for the day’s first race is 1:25 p.m. Central.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – The more than four inches of rain that fell in a two-hour period Friday night was enough to render the Canterbury Park turf course a bog and force Saturday’s inaugural running of the $125,000 Mystic Lake Mile and the $100,000 Lady Canterbury Stakes off the turf. The rash of ensuing scratches included the morning-line favorite in the Lady Canterbury, Hooh Why, and second choice Grandma’s Rules while contenders Hammers Terror and Slip and Drive scratched out of the Mile.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Forty-four starts into his career, 9-year-old Rahystrada is as willing and capable as he has ever been. Saturday at Arlington, he became the first horse to win the Arlington Handicap three times, capturing the Grade 3, $200,000 turf race by a half-length over longshot Temeraine.
“We’re as amazed as anyone,” said Byron “Scooter” Hughes, who trains Rahystrada for owner Robert Courtney Jr. “He keeps telling us he wants to go, so we go.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though he was second-best in the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes, jockey Javier Castellano enjoyed a huge Saturday, winning five races at Belmont Park.
Castellano’s five wins brought his meet total to 72, and he will win his first Belmont spring-summer-meet riding title after runner-up finishes to Ramon Dominguez in each of the last three years. Junior Alvarado, who has 55 wins entering Sunday’s closing-day card, will finish second in the standings.
ELMONT, N.Y. – As he headed toward the Belmont Park winner’s circle following Saturday’s Grade 1 Man o’ War, someone yelled to Shug McGaughey, the trainer of the victorious Boisterous, to smile.
“I said, ‘You know what? I am going to smile on this one because this horse deserved a Grade 1,’ ” McGaughey said.
Pinch hitting for his more celebrated but injured stablemate, Point of Entry, Boisterous finally got his first Grade 1 victory by running past Twilight Eclipse in the final furlong en route to a 2 1/4-length win in the $600,000 Man o’ War at Belmont.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – When Infinite Magic was imported from England after making five starts overseas, he had never been in a turf race. But it was on turf Saturday at Arlington that Infinite Magic made his mark, skimming the rail under rider Channing Hill to win the Grade 3, $200,000 American Derby by a head over the hard-charging Admiral Kitten.
