BOSSIER CITY, La. - She’s Prado’s Idol is becoming a star in her native Louisiana. She picked up the fourth stakes win of her career on Saturday, when she defeated older rivals and open company in the $100,000 River Cities at Louisiana Downs.
The race was one of six stakes on a card led by the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby. Purses for the races totaled more than $1 million.
Sean Avery, away from the races for 13 months because of a bowed tendon, made a successful return Saturday, rallying from off the pace to win the $76,000 Affiliate Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths.
It was Sean Avery’s first start since he won the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga in front-running fashion on Aug. 7, 2011.
Sweet as You Are pulled a 16-1 upset in the $101,500 Mrs. Penny, the richest of the five stakes for Pennsylvania-breds on Saturday at Parx Racing.
The Mrs. Penny for fillies and mares and the $77,000 Marshall Jenny Handicap for sprinters were both shifted from the turf course to the main track.
Sweet as You Are, a $5,000 claimer late last year, got an opportunistic ride from Angel Castillo.
Frontside, the 3-2 favorite, set the pace under pressure but ran out of gas midway on the final turn.
ELMONT, N.Y. – John Velazquez felt Air Support was cruising so nicely in behind the pacesetting Bombaguia that he thought he was going to win Saturday’s Grade 2 Bowling Green Handicap at Belmont Park by open lengths.
But when Velazquez pulled Air Support outside and into the clear for the stretch drive, he had a much different feeling.
“He forgot that he was running,” Velazquez said. “That scared the heck out of me.”
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Gantry is “not a definite” to advance to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint after he finished second, beaten two lengths by Delaunay, in the $50,000 Temperence Hill on the Super Derby undercard Saturday at Louisiana Downs.
Blazing Bling probably is the best 2-year-old filly to race in Ohio this year, and she has won multiple stakes races for Ohio-breds over the summer. But purses in the Buckeye State can’t compete with its slots-enhanced neighbors, and when Blazing Bling starts in an allowance race on Tuesday at Presque Isle Downs, she’ll be racing for the biggest pot of her six-start career, $56,000.
Wesley Ward was at Aqueduct on Friday to watch Judy the Beauty breeze, then flew home to south Florida for a couple of days to see his children. Ever on the move, Ward was scheduled to be at Kentucky Downs by Monday afternoon to watch one of his many promising young horses, Holdin Bullets, make a long-awaited return to action.
ARCADIA, California – Acclamation resumed training Saturday morning at Santa Anita, with an outside chance he could still make the Breeders’ Cup. But time is not on his side.
“There’s still a chance he could run in the Breeders’ Cup,” trainer Don Warren said Friday. “Everything would have to go perfect.”
Fortunately, everything has gone well the past month for Acclamation as he recovers from a strained ligament that knocked him from training in August and prevented an attempted repeat in the Pacific Classic. The injury was at the back of his left pastern.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Ontario Racing Commission has approved Woodbine’s request to drop 11 Thursdays from the schedule, beginning this week.
Thursday racing had not been conducted at Woodbine since mid-July and the only Thursdays now remaining on the schedule will be Dec. 6 and Dec. 13, the final two weeks of the meeting when entries should be plentiful.
Canadian invader Eternal Rule extended his career record to 6 for 7 when dominating all the running Friday in the $250,000 Presque Isle Downs Mile in Erie, Pa.
Ridden by Jesse Campbell, Eternal Rule took the lead shortly after the start, shook off longshot I’m Steppin’ It Up after turning for home, then finished comfortably ahead of a belated run from Alma d’Oro. The winner returned $6 as favorite after finishing the mile in 1:37.57 over the Tapeta synthetic .
