ARCADIA, Calif. – Ian Wilkes learned his lessons well. Working for two decades under Hall of Fame trainer Carl Nafzger, Wilkes saw time and again, with horses like Kentucky Derby winners Unbridled and Street Sense, how to bring a horse, step by step, to a major goal. On Saturday at Santa Anita, it was time for Wilkes, and his horse Fort Larned to step up.
Global Stage tracked the pace and was up for a neck win in the $55,000 Veteran at Zia Park on Saturday. Forest Mouse held second after setting the pace, while it was another four lengths back to Forest Mouse in third.
The Veteran, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up, was the prep for next month's $200,000 Distance Championship. The Distance Championship is the richest race for older horses at Zia.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Using sentiment as a guiding beacon is not a tactic that typically produces favorable results. Morton Fink is a businessman, down to earth, totally realistic. But a choice Fink made from the heart, to keep, rather than sell, the mare Lisa Danielle, strictly because she was named after his granddaughter, has landed him the horse of a lifetime, Wise Dan.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Despite having lost three consecutive races and taking on older horses for the first time, Trinniberg saved his best performance for the biggest stage, outlasting The Lumber Guy by three-quarters of a length to upset Saturday’s $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Every label placed on Little Mike in the last year is proving to be wrong.
At one point, he was thought to be a miler. Then in August, he won the Arlington Million over 1 1/4 miles.
Going into Saturday’s $2,727,000 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita, Little Mike was expected to take his customary position on the lead. When he settled in third in the first mile of the race over 1 1/2 miles, jockey Ramon Dominguez thought his mount was comfortable, but still had concern about how the race was unfolding.
“We didn’t know how he’d react,” he said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Saturday's Grade 2, $169,900 Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs didn't transpire the way the connections of Brushed by a Star expected - except for the end result - with their filly winning by a head over a game Joyful Victory.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Shanghai Bobby inherited a clear lead at the top of the stretch in Saturday's $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, yet his jockey, Rose Napravnik was a bit concerned.
"Bobby got a little lost," Napravnik said. "Most jockeys, especially in the Breeders' Cup, aren't hoping the horses will come to them but I sure was, because once he saw another horse he will turn right back on, and he turns on unbelievable."
The 3-year-old filly Ciguaraya has been working out at Delaware Park since late August. But it took until closing day of the meet before she got a chance to run there.
Rallying from sixth, Ciguaraya took a 1 1/2-length lead at the eighth pole and hung on by a head over fast-closing Winiliscious to win the $50,000 Crowned Stakes for fillies and mares.
