ALTOONA, Iowa -- Praire Cougar resisted the persistent challenge of stable companion Sacred Romance to win the $67,641 Bob Bryant Stakes, a six-furlong event for Iowa-bred 3 year old fillies Saturday night at Prairie Meadows.
Giving her trainer Ray Tracy his 500th victory at Prairie Meadows, Praire Cougar proved best of Tracy's trio in the six-horse field when edging clear late for a three-length tally.
My Three Girls gained the advantage in deep stretch and then held off a desperate late bid from heavy favorite Little Polka Dot to capture Saturday night’s $50,000 Tellike Stakes at Evangeline Downs.
Only a neck separated the top two at the wire and it was another neck back to Storm’s Promise, who vied with the winner through rapid fractions of 21.56 and 44.16 seconds in the five-furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Our Eleanor benefitted from a hotly contested duel between heavily favored Claresmiezie and longshot Vinoterra to win the Ross McLeod for 3-year-old fillies at Hastings on Saturday. She paid $13.80 as the third choice in the eight-horse field.
With Amadeo Perez aboard, Our Eleanor was sitting comfortably in mid pack while Claresmiezie and Vinoterra battled it out through extremely fast fractions of 21.60 and 44.48 seconds. Perez started moving Our Eleanor into contention on the stretch turn and she took command of the race in midstretch.
BALTIMORE – I’ll Have Another is bound for the bright lights of Broadway. He pulled out of Pimlico Racecourse on Sunday morning, headed to Belmont Park in New York, where on June 9 he will attempt to become the 12th winner of the Triple Crown, and the first since Affirmed in 1978.
BALTIMORE - Paul Reddam, the owner of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, admitted to thinking if ever there was a time his 25-year-old jockey Mario Gutierrez may get a little nervous it would be just before Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.
"I would think if you win the first Grade 1 of your lifetime in April and you win the Derby in May if there's any time you would have been flappable it would have been going into today's race," Reddam said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - This may sound familiar: On Saturday, a well-regarded Bob Baffert-trained stakes winner had the lead in a major stakes in early stretch, was caught by a top contender and settled for second.
It happened with Bodemeister ,who was caught by I'll Have Another in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. A little more than an hour later, the Baffert-trained Ellafitz had the lead in the $150,000 Marjorie Everett Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park, but could not hold off a late run from Include Me Out.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Speed has been king the first few days of the 2012 Canterbury Park meet, and the first two stakes of the season on Saturday were no exception.
In the Lady Slipper, jockey Dean Butler made sure that defending champion Hidden Gold stayed close to speedsters Sheso Dazzling and Polar Plunge, overtaking the pair at the top of the lane and shaking loose to win by 1 1/4 lengths. Sheso Dazzling held on for second while Polar Plunge settled for third.
BALTIMORE – Mike Smith dismounted from Bodemeister, and it was hard to tell if he was grinning or grimacing. Maybe it was both. Smith and Bodemeister had just been beaten on the wire in the 137th Preakness by I’ll Have Another and jockey Mario Gutierrez, and Smith seemed in awe of the drama that had just occurred.
“I really don’t know what I have to do to beat him,” said Smith. “Maybe they’ll give that horse his due now. He’s a good horse. He’s a really good horse.”
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Five-year-old Havelock has mainly been a turf sprinter during a successful 17-race career, but he expanded his horizons Saturday at Arlington Park, coming out on top of a three-horse blanket finish in the Grade 3, $150,000 Hanshin Cup, a one-turn Polytrack mile.
BALTIMORE – I’ll Have Another. And another. And another?
I’ll Have Another, the Kentucky Derby winner, added the 137th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico to his win streak Saturday, setting up a Triple Crown bid in three weeks in the Belmont Stakes on June 9 at Belmont Park.
As he did in the Derby two weeks ago, I’ll Have Another caught front-running Bodemeister in the final yards to prevail, but the Preakness was far closer, far more dramatic, and, for I’ll Have Another, even more impressive.
