LOS ALAMITOS, Calif.- Rylees Boy became the oldest winner of the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos, winning Saturday’s race by a head over the 3-year-old filly Flame N Flash.
Rylees Boy gave trainer Paul Jones, 47, a sixth career win in the Champion of Champions, the nation’s top race for older Quarter Horses.
The late Blane Schvaneveldt is the all-time leader with 10 wins in the Champion of Champions.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Eblouissante, the 3-year-old half-sister to 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, resumed training on Sunday morning at Betfair Hollywood Park, a day after being scratched from an optional claimer after sustaining a minor injury in the backstretch receiving barn.
Eblouissante sustained an injury to her hip when she struck a stall door about 30 minutes before a scheduled start in Saturday’s fourth race.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The unbeaten Violence, who shipped from New York to California to make off with the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Betfair Hollywood Park on Saturday, traveled to Florida on Sunday to begin preparations for his 3-year-old campaign, which is likely to begin with the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park or the Risen Star at Fair Grounds, both on Feb. 23.
Thanks to his homebred 2-year-old filly Queen’o’daball, trainer James W. Casey was able to pay tribute to his late wife by winning the stakes named in her honor Saturday night at Charles Town.
Queen’o’daball ($3.60) rallied from sixth after the first half-mile to draw off to a two-length victory in the $51,100 Eleanor Casey Memorial for West Virginia-bred 2-year-old fillies.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – It was his first race outside New York, around two turns, and under the lights, yet none of that, nor 10 rivals, could stop Violence from remaining unbeaten in the Grade 1, $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Betfair Hollywood Park, a result that positioned Violence as yet another elite Kentucky Derby contender in the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher.
People always are talking about horses and their distance limitations. Fact is, those limitations are fluid. Put an apparently distance-limited horse in the right spot, and he will go as far as you please.
Take Hurricane Ike. Sure, he probably delivers his best lick in one-mile races, but left to his own devices on an easy lead Saturday in the Tenacious Handicap at Fair Grounds, Hurricane Ike got 1 1/16 miles just fine. In front the whole trip, he dug down and held off pace-pressing Brethren to win the $75,000 dirt race by a neck, his first career victory beyond one mile.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Grandeur was left with too much to do in the stretch of the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Betfair Hollywood Park on Nov. 25, closing from last in a field of 14 to finish second to Unbridled Command.
Jockey Garrett Gomez opted for different tactics in Saturday’s $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup, with a more favorable result.
Gomez kept Grandeur in fifth place for the first mile. His mount rallied wide on the turn and held off a threat from the 29-1 shot Interaction to win by three-quarters of a length. Grandeur ($5.20) ran 1 1/2 miles in 2:27.95.
Shane Sellers got his first victory since he was injured in a spill in June when he guided Night Party to a 2 1/4-length score Saturday in the $50,000 Prairie Bayou Stakes at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.
Sellers, riding for his friend and business partner, trainer Pat Huffman, went straight to the front with Night Party from his outside post in the 1 1/16-mile Polytrack race and held off all challenges.
PHOENIX - Turf Paradise canceled its Saturday program after heavy rains in the Phoenix area wreaked havoc with the racing surface. The track had canceled the final two races of its Friday card when the rains first hit.
Saturday's cancelation included the $35,000 City of Phoenix Stakes, a sprint for fillies and mares 3-years-old and upward. The track has yet to announce when the race will be brought back.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Mystic Love, the only filly in the field, slipped up the inside under a brilliant ride by Elvis Trujillo to upset even-money favorite Charming Kitten in Saturday’s $100,000 Dania Beach at Gulfstream Park.
