INGLEWOOD, Calif.- At the end of her 4-year-old season, and a dozen races into her career, Ellafitz is finally thriving for owners David and Ella Sivage and trainer Bob Baffert.
Sunday at Hollywood Park, Ellafitz led throughout the $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap to win the first stakes of her career. The filly had placed in two stakes in 2010 and finally had a breakthrough performance in an important race in the Grade 2 Bayakoa.
McKenna’s Justice won the richest Thoroughbred race of the Zia Park meet in a head bob on Sunday, when he edged Red Lead by a nose in the $200,000 Distance Championship. The 1 1/8-mile race was one of three stakes on the final card of the season, and all three produced double-digit winners.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario—Eagle Poise lowered the 1 3/4-mile track record in a thrilling renewal of the $153,300 Valedictory Stakes, Woodbine’s closing day feature on Sunday.
Eagle Poise ($8.80), based in Maryland with trainer Graham Motion, shipped in to win the Nov. 11 allowance prep for the Valedictory by a neck over Eye of the Leopard, who was the slight favorite over Breeders’ Cup Marathon winner Afleet Again in the Grade 3 Valedictory.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Weemissfrankie lost her unbeaten record with a third-place finish behind My Miss Aurelia and Grace Hall in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs in November.
She lost little else in defeat.
In the weeks after the race, trainer Peter Eurton said that Weemissfrankie regained the weight she had lost from the journey to Kentucky. She recovered quickly enough for Eurton to plan for a start in Saturday's $250,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes at Hollywood Park, the last Grade 1 race of the year for 2-year-old fillies.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.- Any doubts about Zero Rate Policy’s ability to stay seven furlongs were erased in the 1:21.57 it took the improving 3-year-old to cover the distance en route to his 1 1/4-length victory over a late-running Manicero in Sunday’s $60,000 Sunshine State Stakes at Gulfstream.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.- Soaring Empire, winner of the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope in his 2011 debut, will be back to defend that title, trainer Cam Gambolati said on Sunday.
Soaring Empire has not started since winning Monmouth Park’s Majestic Light Stakes on July 31. He worked for just the second time since that outing early Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park, going a half mile in 46 seconds and galloping out five-eighths in 58.40 in company with jockey Julien Leparoux aboard.
Fortune Play, ridden by Ramon Vazquez, finally got the best of Waccamaw in a lengthy stretch duel Saturday night to post a head victory in the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
INGLEWOOD, Calif.- A ground-saving trip helped Kettle Corn win his first stakes in Saturday’s $100,000 Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park, a victory that could lead to an international trip next spring.
Ridden by Garrett Gomez, Kettle Corn ($19) caught pacesetter Tres Borrachos in the final sixteenth to win by a half-length, finishing 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.03. Tres Borrachos, the 8-5 favorite, finished 2 1/4 lengths in front of Tweebster, the 2-1 second choice in the field of seven.
The 2-year-old filly Class Break’s first two-turn start looked a lot like her last one-turn start, a last-minute stretch rally leading to victory in a rich race for Illinois-breds.
Still four lengths behind at the stretch call, Class Break surged outside in the final half-furlong to win the $89,100 Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante on Saturday at Hawthorne. A nose back came Diva’s Diamond and Our Domain, who dead-heated for second in a three-horse blanket finish.
First Strike is getting good in a hurry. In his first start since being claimed for $40,000, he overtook multiple stakes winner Thirtyfirststreet in the stretch and went on to a 1 1/2-length win in the $150,000 Zia Park Derby on Saturday.
The race was the first of four high-end stakes being run over the final weekend of racing at the Hobbs, N.M. track. The season closes Sunday with three of those races, led by the $200,000 Zia Park Distance Championship.
