INGLEWOOD, Calif. - All that Tale of a Champion needed for success in Southern California was distance.
After running primarily in sprints and one-mile turf races in his first eight months on this circuit, Tale of a Champion won his first graded stakes, and second consecutive race, in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,250 Charles Whittingham Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Fast Bullet served notice he will be a major force to reckon with in the sprint division this season after returning from a six-month vacation to register an impressive 2 1/2-length decision over entrymate Justin Phillip in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 True North Handicap at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It has taken Power Broker a long time to get back to the Grade 1 form he displayed as a 2-year-old, but it does indeed appear as though he has found it.
Stalking the pacesetting Always in a Tiz through a decent early pace under Rosie Napravnik, Power Broker took command leaving the three-furlong marker, then bounded home a 3 3/4-length winner of Saturday's $150,000 Easy Goer Stakes at Belmont Park.
Early in their 2-year-old seasons, Tequila Hero and French Wine were talented enough to pick up small chunks of the purse in the richest stakes held at Finger Lakes, the New York Breeders’ Futurity.
The potential they flashed has yet to be fulfilled, but both are still too young to write off. Tequila Hero and French Wine will look to take the next step forward in the second of two allowance races on Tuesday’s card at Finger Lakes, an open company nonwinners-of-three-lifetime race that carries a $23,000 purse and is carded at a mile and 40 yards.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Successful Dan and Fort Larned have been assigned 121 pounds apiece as the starting highweights for the Stephen Foster Handicap, the Grade 1 race to be run next Saturday night as the annual post-Kentucky Derby highlight of the Churchill Downs spring meet.
Sum of the Parts is winless in two starts this year, but trainer Tom Amoss thinks the $100,000 Karl Boyes Memorial at Presque Isle Downs on Monday will put him in the win column.
“He has been perfect on synthetics, and I am hoping this is what he needs to turn him around,” Amoss said of the Tapeta surface at Presque Isle.
Sum of the Parts is 3 for 3 on synthetic surfaces and 5 for 13 lifetime. He has earned $594,000.
ALTOONA, Iowa – Queen Lilly Kay sat a perfect trip under jockey Glenn Corbett and forged well clear in the stretch to take Friday night’s $75,000 Hawkeyes Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for Iowa-bred fillies and mares, by 6 3/4 lengths.
Waiting to pounce a few lengths behind favored Ginger Added and Rudy’s Edge as they dueled through fractions of 23.18 seconds and 47.00, the Kelly Von Hemel-trained Queen Lilly Kay ($8.20) responded when given her cue on the far turn and took over as they entered the stretch.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Maybe a trip to Kentucky with the 4-year-old filly More Chocolate for the La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs last month was not the best idea.
That is the post-race assessment from trainer John Sadler, who is preparing More Chocolate for Saturday’s $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park.
More Chocolate finished fifth in the Grade 2 La Troienne Stakes in her first career start outside of Southern California.
“I probably should have stayed home to begin with,” Sadler said.
Results and recap articles for the 2013 Belmont Stakes card at Belmont.
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