ARCADIA, Calif. – The best horse won the best race on Breeders’ Cup Friday at Santa Anita, and she did it surprising fashion.
Royal Delta ($5.40) became the second filly or mare to win the Ladies’ Classic in consecutive years with a heads-up ride from Mike Smith, whose 16th Breeders’ Cup win makes him the all-time Breeders’ Cup leader.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Zagora ended her career at the top of the American female turf division.
Making her final start before she is scheduled to be sold Monday evening at the Fasig-Tipton November sale in Kentucky, Zagora won Friday’s $1,818,000 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita, the richest and most prestigious victory of her career.
With the win, she essentially clinched the Eclipse Award as the nation’s champion turf female of 2012.
ARCADIA, Calif. - As usual, Richard Mandella made the right call.
Faced with the options of running the speedy Beholder in the $500,000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint or the $2 million Juvenile Fillies, Mandella went for the Juvenile Fillies.
He and owner B. Wayne Hughes were rewarded for that decision when Beholder, ridden by Garrett Gomez, scored a one-length front-running victory over Executiveprivilege in the Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita.[bc_video_id:267185:]
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Those looking for a reason to back Fort Larned in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Classic may have received favorable signal in Friday's Grade 3, $110,400 Ack Ack Handicap at Churchill Downs when Fort Larned's workmate, Neck 'n Neck, scored a comfortable 2 1/4-length victory.The win came for the same trainer/jockey team of Fort Larned: Ian Wilkes and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.
Of the duo only Hernandez was on hand at Churchill Friday, placing Neck 'n Neck in sixth early in the field of seven, and urging him past his six rivals in the lane.
ARCADIA, Ca. – Flotilla was bred in France, trains in France, and before this week, had only raced in France. It has been a wet year in France: All four of Flotilla’s starts there came on courses rated soft or something close to it. Friday, at fast-playing, very firm Santa Anita, the French filly Flotilla sparkled, closing fiercely under Christophe Lemaire to gun down Watsdachances in the final furlong and win the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf by 1 1/4 lengths.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Calidoscopio became the oldest winner in the history of the Breeders’ Cup while briefly turning Santa Anita racetrack into a soccer pitch in South America after cruising to an easy 4 1/2-length victory over fellow longshot Grassy in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Marathon.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 19th will count as much as the first 18 did – even if it only took a maiden to defeat four other 2-year-olds Friday at Santa Anita in the $500,000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint, the opener of the two-day, 15-race sequence.
Results, video replays, and recap articles for the Friday card of the 2012 Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With a purse of $58,000, Sunday’s featured fourth race at Churchill Downs offers plenty of financial incentive for the participants. And though the connections of Major Marvel are in it to win it, they also have hopes for an even bigger prize in a few weeks.
Sunday’s race, a 1 1/16-mile money allowance on the grass, is Major Marvel’s prep for the $125,000 Claiming Crown Emerald on opening day at Gulfstream Park Dec. 1.
ARCADIA, Calif. – By any count, John Sadler is having a milestone week.
Officially, Sadler, 56, has won 1,998 Thoroughbred races in North America through Thursday, according to Equibase statistics. But he has won three more races in Southern California and Dubai in his career – two wins by the Thoroughbred Valiant Pete against Quarter Horses in California in 1991 and 1993, and Our New Recruit’s win in the $2 million Golden Shaheen in Dubai in 2004.
