LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ken and Sarah Ramsey tied the record for most wins by an owner at a Keeneland meet, either spring or fall, when Friday victories from Hollywood Talent in race 5 and Animal Style in race 7 pushed their meet-leading tally to 12 victories.
They had a chance in the featured Doubledogdare to get the outright record, but their runners, Sisterhood and Artemus Kitten, ran second and third, respectively.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Taking command after an alert start, Ice Cream Silence led virtually throughout to win Friday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Doubledogdare by a neck over Sisterhood before a crowd of 11,897 at Keeneland.
The race was largely won in the early stages of the 1 1/16-mile race, with Ice Cream Silence under Rosie Napravnik slowing the pace with fractions of 24.43 seconds and 49.20 for the opening half-mile while under only mild pressure from Sisterhood.
Paynter, who was seriously ill last fall with colitis and laminitis, moved closer to a comeback with a three-furlong workout in 36.20 seconds at Hollywood Park on Friday.
Paynter, 4, had not worked since March 29 at Santa Anita, a break that trainer Bob Baffert said was caused by tender feet. Baffert has not picked a comeback race for Paynter, who is owned by Zayat Stables.
A winner of 3 of 6 starts and $952,224, Paynter is best known for winning the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park last August and finishing second in the Belmont Stakes.
AUBURN, Wash. – You Me and Ema B is a friend of the people. She won her career debut by more than four lengths and returned $21.80 for a $2 win bet. She went gate to wire in her first stakes appearance and paid $23.20. And in her first attempt around two turns, in the Boeing Handicap in July 2011, she won by daylight and paid $16.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The longest race of the year adds style to closing day of the long winter meet at Santa Anita – a 1 3/4-mile turf spectacle that is pure majesty.
The San Juan Capistrano Handicap will be run for the 74th time on Sunday, final day of the 71-day season. Although trainer Richard Mandella has not won the race in 20 years, the San Juan still kindles passion.
Racing will move to a three-day week Friday, with post time for the first of 10 races set for 1 p.m. Eastern. Friday also will mark the second weekly podcast featuring Jennifer Morrison and Renee Kierans, a pilot project sponsored by the local Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
Morrison, the editor of Canadian Thoroughbred and a freelance contributor to Daily Racing Form, and Kierans, a trainer and former television host for Woodbine, will be handicapping selected races at Woodbine and Fort Erie and major features south of the border.
AUBURN, Wash. – It’s been said you can’t tell the players without a scorecard, and that old chestnut has seldom been more applicable than this week at Emerald Downs. The start of 75-day meeting on Friday has been accompanied by wholesale turnover in the jockey colony.
Leslie Mawing and William Antongeorgi, who combined to win 168 races last year – or 24 percent of all races run – have relocated to other circuits, and in the scramble to fill the void, at least eight new riders have been combing the Emerald backstretch trying to make a positive impression.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Troy Taylor set a record by winning 18 stakes at Hastings last year, and he is going to have strong chances in both the $50,000 Brighouse Belles for fillies and mares next Saturday and the $50,000 George Royal for 3-year-olds and up next Sunday. Both races are at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Jermaine Bridgmohan relocated here last summer with an eye toward making the Woodbine meeting a regular part of his riding future. And while Bridgmohan compiled a very respectable record of 29-26-18 from 168 mounts, winning with 17 percent of his starters and earning more than $1 million in purse money, he did so while riding solely for American owners, and his immigration status remains unchanged heading into the 2013 meeting.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Procurement may have finished second in the Pasadena Stakes at Santa Anita on March 29, but the 3-year-old must do more to earn accolades from trainer Tom Proctor.
“I don’t know if he’s a top horse, but I think he’ll be a nice horse,” Proctor said.
Procurement can enhance his reputation when he starts as the favorite in Sunday’s $70,000 La Puente Stakes for 3-year-olds over 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita.
