SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said he received 52 text messages following Questing’s nine-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.
“Fifty of them started out with ‘Wow!’ ” McLaughlin said. “That’s what we all felt. Being and doing this all your life to have a performance like that, it was really a wow.”
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Point of Entry’s powerful four-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Sword Dancer Invitational combined with his 3 1/2 -length score in last month’s Grade 1 Man o’ War at Belmont Park, has trainer Shug McGaughey believing he has the best turf marathon horse in the country.
“I think so, yes,” McGaughey said Sunday morning. “He’s the kind of horse where if both he and Little Mike ran together and the fractions were that slow he’d be breathing on him a little bit.”
Russell Road, the beaten favorite as the odds-on choice in this same race each of the past two years, made amends by scoring a front-running victory in Saturday night’s $51,200 Frank Gall Memorial for West Virginia-breds at Charles Town.
Don Dulce became a stakes winner on Saturday night, when he held off a surging Nikki’s Sandcastle in the $100,000 Edward J. DeBartolo Memorial at Remington Park. The 1 1/8-mile race was scheduled for turf but was moved to the main track, which was rated good. Don Dulce won by a head, while Nikki’s Sandcastle finished a length in front of third-place finisher and 2-1 favorite Golden Yank.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Dale Romans was back at Saratoga just a few hours after winning the Arlington Million for the first time Saturday. Romans was among those on a charter flight that transported a number of horsemen, including jockey Ramon Dominguez, who gave Little Mike a perfect ride in leading every step of the 30th Million at Arlington Park.
“We all went straight to the airport and were back at a decent hour,” Romans said Sunday morning by phone.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Richard’s Kid, winner of the 2009 and 2010 Pacific Classic and a leading contender for the 2012 running on Aug. 26, was sold privately Saturday and transferred from trainer Bob Baffert to Leandro Mora, according to a person familiar with the transaction.
A 7-year-old, Richard’s Kid was acquired by a partnership that includes Mark Verge’s Westside Rentals, Dave Kenney, and Triple B Farms. The horse was sent across the Del Mar backstretch to Mora’s stable by the evening.
DEL MAR, Calif. - There is a pick six carryover of $442,700 for Sunday at Del Mar after the bet proved too difficult to hit for the second consecutive day on Saturday.
An upset win by Cook Inlet ($35.80) in Saturday's 10th race clinched the carryover on a tough card of races.
Sunday's program features nine races and begins at 2 p.m., Pacific. The pick six covers the fourth through ninth races. The pool of new money is likely to approach $2 million.
DEL MAR, Calif.- Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith’s description of Lady of Shamrock’s rally best describes her style of victory in Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Oaks.
“She goes from last to woom,” he said. “She’s got a great turn of foot. You’ve got to trust her.”
Smith rode Lady of Shamrock ($4) confidently in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks and was rewarded when the filly closed with a remarkable rally to win by a half-length over 43-1 Stormy Lucy. Open Water, a 25-1 shot, finished third in the field of nine.
Top Cat Boogie continued his domination of the 3-year-old Louisiana-bred ranks Saturday, when he won his fourth stakes race of the year in the $75,000 Louisiana Cup Derby at Louisiana Downs. He wired the field in the 1 1/16-mile race and won by 1 1/4 lengths over Fate’s Right Hand.
The Louisiana Cup Derby was one of eight divisional stakes for Louisiana-breds on the card. In all, the races were worth a cumulative $570,000.
Filare l’Oro loved the yielding turf she encountered for the first time when she outran her 9-1 odds to finish a close second in the Grade 3 Virginia Oaks last time out and she relished the same type of soft ground at Penn National on Saturday.
Last of six after the first half-mile, Filare l’Oro made up a five-length deficit in the final furlong to run down favored welcome Dance in deep stretch to win the $100,000 Dauphin Miss for 3-year-old fillies by three-quarters of a length.
