I Like the Odds, a gelding who failed to qualify for four major futurities at Ruidoso Downs and Los Alamitos earlier this year, won the richest race in Los Alamitos history in Sunday’s $2,236,300 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity.
The victory gave a trainer named Bassett a sixth win in the track’s top futurity. I Like the Odds is trained by Joe Bassett, 28, his second career win in the race. Bassett’s father, John, has won the Two Million four times.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer won the 2010 Kentucky Oaks with Blind Luck and has another candidate for that race in Killer Graces, who won the most prestigious race of her career in the Starlet Stakes.
“If she keeps improving, we can take a shot at it,” Hollendorfer said Sunday.
Killer Graces won the third stakes of her career in the Starlet, ending a streak of four losses in stakes. Hollendorfer said that Killer Graces will be rested in coming weeks, with a potential 2012 debut in the $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes on March 3.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Weemissfrankie is expected to be sidelined for four months after undergoing surgery Sunday for a nondisplaced condylar fracture detected after a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes.
The operation was conducted Sunday afternoon by prominent veterinarian Dr. C. Wayne McIlwraith at an equine clinic in Cypress, Calif., near Los Alamitos Racecourse. One screw was inserted in Weemissfrankie’s right foreleg to stabilize the injury, trainer Peter Eurton said.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Leigh Delacour’s stable has been rising in prominence since Delacour, a onetime assistant to trainer Graham Motion, and her husband, Arnaud, a former assistant to Christophe Clement, went out on their own in 2007.
The stable has gained a reputation as an organization that uses a European approach in the development of young stock and careful placement of its proven runners.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Perfect Shirl is heading to South America to complete her 2011 campaign Saturday in the Group 1 Gran Premio Internacional Pellegrini at San Isidro Race Course in Buenos Aires.
Perfect Shirl, a 4-year-old homebred daughter of Perfect Soul, is trained by Roger Attfield for owner-breeder Charles Fipke. She has not started since registering her only victory of the year, a shocking three-quarter-length triumph at odds of 27-1 in the Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 4.
Rose’s Desert extended her win streak to four races on Sunday with a powerful off-the-pace score in the $110,000 New Mexico Racing Commission Handicap at Sunland Park. She won by 3 1/4 lengths over Dream Kin, and it was another 5 1/2 lengths back in third to Comicsperfectstorm, a stablemate to Rose’s Desert who was chasing her sixth straight win Sunday.
Odds-on favorites L G Jet and Forty Something scored victories in the Bill Wineberg and Janet Wineberg stakes during Oregon Championship Day at Portland Meadows on Sunday. The card featured five stakes for Oregon-breds.
L G Jet scored his third straight victory with a front-running score under Luis Torres in the Bill Wineberg. He defeated Slew the Cat by 2 1/2 lengths in the six-furlong race for 2-year-olds bred in Oregon. Suesawme was third, another 10 1/2 lengths back in the field of seven. L G Jet's winning time was 1:12.03 and he paid $2.60.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Tiz Flirtatious remained perfect after three starts with a comfortable win in her stakes debut in Sunday’s $85,800 Cat’s Cradle Handicap at Hollywood Park.
So Brilliant, the undefeated winner of the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue Stakes on Nov. 24, will miss Saturday’s $750,000 CashCall Futurity because of an elevated temperature, trainer Bob Baffert said on Sunday.
“He left a little feed,” Baffert said.
The absence of So Brilliant still leaves Baffert with three probable starters in the CashCall Futurity, the final Grade 1 race of the year for 2-year-olds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla .- Chad Brown said he had a pretty good teacher when it came to taking European imports and winning races in the U.S. That teacher was the late Bobby Frankel and he would have been proud of the job Brown has done with Thai Haku, an Irish-bred filly who rallied to a 1 /4-length victory over the 45-1 Hooh Why in Sunday’s $60,000 South Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
