INGLEWOOD, Calif. - In a battle of impressive debut winners, So Brilliant shined and Empire Way never fired in the Grade 3, $100,000 Hollywood Prevue on Thursday at Hollywood Park.
So Brilliant ($4.80), the favorite, led from virtually start to finish and staved off a slew of late challengers to win the seven-furlong race by a half-length over Brother Francis, who rallied from sixth in the seven-horse field to finish second.
Hodge was another 1 1/4 lengths back in third.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It's hard to believe that Bill Mott sent out 12 losers from his first 19 starters at the Churchill Downs fall meet, because it seems like every time the spotlight came on, the Hall of Fame trainer had the winner.
That remarkable pattern continued Thursday at Churchill when Arena Elvira, trained by Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, was along in the final strides to defeat Afleeting Lady by a neck in the 96th running of the Grade 2, $193,725 Falls City Handicap.
NEW ORLEANS – Gantry gave 29-year-old New Orleans native Ron Faucheux his first stakes win as a trainer. He was ridden to victory in the $75,000 Thanksgiving Handicap by Richard Eramia, who was fortunate to escape injury in a spill earlier Thursday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sunrise Smarty set a torrid early pace and then held off the late run of Nathan’s H Q to win Thursday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct.
Sunrise Smarty was ridden to victory by Ramon Dominguez, who celebrated his 35th birthday Thursday by winning five races on the card.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Racing in the opening-day Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs, On Fire Baby lived up to the high expectations her connections always had for her, scoring by three-quarters of a length over And Why Not.
With And Why Not not returning in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Golden Rod Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Churchill, On Fire Baby’s chances of notching back-to-back victories would seem good − at least until the 10 other fillies in the Golden Rod are evaluated.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. − Fifty-five weeks after capping an undefeated championship season with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs, Awesome Feather returns to Grade 1 competition when she runs in Saturday’s $250,000 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct.
A field of 10 was entered for the Gazelle, but Marion Ravenwood will scratch after winning Thursday’s off-the-turf Capades Stakes. The Gazelle, run at 1 1/8 miles, is the last of four stakes on Saturday’s 10-race program at Aqueduct and is the final Grade 1 race to be run this year in New York.
MIAMI – Trainer Roger Attfield’s November roll with filly and mare turf horses continued Thanksgiving Day at Calder, where Orgeon Lady rallied to a neck victory over Trip for A. J. in the Grade 3 My Charmer Handicap. Attfield was rewarded with his first Breeders’ Cup victory less than three weeks ago when Perfect Shirl upset the Filly and Mare Turf.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – If three’s a crowd, then it’s awfully crowded with Bob Baffert trainees in the Grade 3, $100,000 Vernon O. Underwood Stakes for sprinters at Hollywood Park on Saturday.
Baffert entered three horses in the six-furlong race on Cushion Track, and said on Thursday that all three will run, giving him one-third of the nine-horse field.
“There’s nothing else for them,” Baffert said.
