LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jerry Hollendorfer has won the Kentucky Oaks three times, and the Hall of Fame trainer may want to give the filly classic another shot after he was represented Sunday by the victorious Ciao Bella Luna in the Grade 2, $150,000 Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland.
Ridden by Joel Rosario, Ciao Bella Luna ran down Magical Moon to win the Beaumont by 2 1/2 lengths. Judy In Disguise, the 2-1 favorite in a field of 11 3-year-old fillies, finished another 2 3/4 lengths behind in third.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The one-two finish by Mizdirection and Schiaparelli in Saturday’s $100,000 Las Cienegas Stakes at Santa Anita gives trainer Mike Puype a deep team of female turf sprinters for the spring.
Sunday, Puype said he plans to send the runners in different directions, with Mizdirection bound for the $500,000 Just a Game Stakes over a mile on turf at Belmont Park on June 8, and Schiaparelli a candidate for the $70,000 Great Lady M Stakes over six furlongs on turf at Betfair Hollywood Park on May 26.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Sister Kate won her first stakes in Sunday’s $83,600 Santa Lucia Stakes at Santa Anita, benefiting from a strategic decision by jockey Corey Nakatani not to engage eventual runner-up Candrea in a speed duel.
Approaching the first turn of the race over 1 1/16 miles, Nakatani kept Sister Kate behind Candrea, who set an early pace of 23.22 and 47.22 seconds. Sister Kate ($18.40) trailed by a length on the backstretch, engaged the leader on the turn, and won by three-quarters of a length, in 1:45.22.
A horse who bolted twice while racing on the lead and took a detour in between a parked starting gate and the outside rail at Pimlico has become something of an Internet sensation.
Even non-racing fans were clicking on YouTube to watch the replays of Saturday’s 11th race and the bizarre trip taken by Spicer Cub, a 4-year-old maiden gelding. By mid-afternoon on Sunday, the replay had been watched more than 13,000 times and there were plenty of comments on Facebook and Twitter.
Fort Larned, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner who finished fifth to Cyber Secret in the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on Saturday, emerged from the race in good order, his trainer, Ian Wilkes, said on Sunday. The horse shipped Sunday morning to Churchill Downs.
“He’s good,” Wilkes said Sunday, noting the horse scoped clean after the race and had not been found to have any other physical problems.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - A day after winning the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, Overanalyze was settled in at Churchill Downs to begin final preparations for next month’s Kentucky Derby. Rafael Bejarano, who rode the horse for the first time in the Arkansas Derby, will have the mount, trainer Todd Pletcher said on Sunday.
Jake Olesiak won six races on Saturday’s 11-race card at Fonner Park to take over the lead from his older brother Jordan in the track’s jockey standings.
Olesiak opened the day with wins in the second, fourth, and sixth races, and then rattled off three straight victories, capped off by a win aboard Diamonds Ace ($5) in the colts and geldings division of the $25,800 Fonner Park Special Stakes.
Jake Olesiak holds a 33-31 edge in the rider standings over Jordan Olesiak as the season heads into its final three weekends.
Lasting Bubbles tracked pacesetter and favored Cowgirl N Up in Saturday’s $50,000 JEH Stallion Stakes at Lone Star Park and proved much the best in the stretch, drawing off for a 5 1/2-length victory.
With Lindey Wade aboard, Last Bubbles, a 5-year-old mare by Pulling Punches, raced 6 1/2 furlongs in a fast 1:16.32. She paid $6.20.
“She ran the lights out,” Wade said.
Cowgirl N Up easily held second, finishing 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Im a Bear.
The JEH Stallion marked the first stakes victory for Lasting Bubbles, who improved her record to 3 for 5 in 2013.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ken McPeek and Todd Pletcher swapped exactas, so to speak, in the two big Kentucky Derby prep races Saturday.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Both watched amid a bright and fading spring sun at Keeneland when Java’s War, trained by McPeek, overtook Palace Malice, trained by Pletcher, in the desperate final yards of the Blue Grass Stakes.
