ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Grace Phil caught Consecutive in deep stretch to land her turf debut Saturday at Woodbine in the $125,400 Passing Mood Stakes.

Grace Phil stalked the leaders along the inside, and then split horses in midstretch before kicking in to take the seven-furlong sprint by a half-length, in 1:23.69 over the firm ground. Pace-presser Consecutive finished 1 1/4 lengths clear of pacemaker Kitty's Got Class, the 126-pound highweight, who held on for third. Favored Estella never fired and wound up sixth in the nine-horse field of Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies.

Commander scored a convincing 3 1/2-length win over Footprint in the $50,000 Spangled Jimmy for 3-year-olds and up at Northlands Park Saturday. Commander was favored in the one-mile race and paid $4.70. He was ridden by Kentucky Derby/Preakness winning jockey Mario Gutierrez.

Prior to Saturday, Fox Rules clearly looked like a far better horse on turf, where he had won 3 of 7 starts, than on dirt, where he was 0 for 4, including a 14 1/2-length drubbing in his last appearance on the main track in the March 10 Tampa Bay Derby.

Given one more try on the main track in the 40^th running of the $150,000 New York Derby at Finger Lakes, Fox Rules showed he can be effective on dirt, too.

A pair of horses claimed last time out while running against nonwinners-of-three lifetime company will try to make a successful jump to allowance company in Tuesday night’s featured fifth race at Penn National.

Alicantino, who scored for a $12,500 claiming price going two turns on turf, and Fiery Forest, fourth as the 2-1 choice while running with a $16,000 price on his head, will race as an uncoupled entry for trainer Tim Kreiser in a first-level allowance that carries a $36,000 purse and will be contested a one mile.

Tapitsfly, front-running winner of the Grade 1 Just a Game at a mile on Belmont Stakes Day, worked five furlongs in 1:01.33 Saturday morning in preparation for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Diana at 1 1/8 miles.

Under Tammy Fox, Tapitsfly broke off quickly, going in fractions of 11.75 seconds, 23.36, and 35.44.

“She went very well, looked good doing it. Made me think about running her back on the dirt, but that can wait,” trainer Dale Romans said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – And on the second day, there was running water, audio, and Internet at Saratoga.

Saturday, after technical difficulties interrupted an otherwise pleasant opening day here Friday, everything seemed to be in working order at the Spa.

But even with the hiccups, Saratoga’s 114th opening day turned out to be quite successful for the New York Racing Association.

West Virginia-breds get a rare opportunity to compete on turf against fellow statebreds in a pair of seven-furlong allowances for nonwinners-of-two lifetime on Monday night’s card at Mountaineer Racetrack. The fact that both fields are full of horses with little or no turf experience makes races 3 and 4 on the program pretty much a guessing game for handicappers.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Two years after setting the local course record going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, Fiddlers Patriot returned to nearly eclipse his own mark when he drew away to a 2 1/2-length victory over Perfect Officer in Saturday’s $100,000 Willard Straight Stakes at Saratoga.

Fiddlers Patriot established the current standard of 1:00.59 winning a second-level optional claiming race for New York-breds during the summer of 2010. On Saturday, he fell just .04 of a second short of equaling that standard while posting his second stakes win in three starts this season.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Atigun’s third-place finish in the Belmont Stakes was a breakthrough race for the steadily improving 3-year-old. Now trainer Ken McPeek has come to Saratoga hoping for even bigger and better things from Atigun, beginning with Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy.

Atigun turned in his final prep for the Jim Dandy shortly after the renovation break here on Saturday, working five furlongs in 1:01.88 in company with stablemate Hogue. Regular rider Julien Leparoux was aboard for the drill.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Lunar Victory appeared to be a New York-bred on the rise this winter, until a bleeding episode short-circuited his season back in March.

After a bit of a freshening, Lunar Victory will seek to pick up where he left off Monday when he returns to New York-bred competition in the $100,000 Evan Shipman Stakes at Saratoga. The Evan Shipman, run at 1 1/8 miles, is the feature on a 10-race card that brings the first week of the Saratoga meeting to a close.