The favored Lady of Fifty had her nose down at the wire, providing the margin of victory over Power of Nine, whose nose just started to bob up at the wire, in the $53,260 Golden Gate Debutante at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.
Vamoose edged favorite Imco Spirit late for a head win in the $55,000 Veteran at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M., on Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile race served as the local prep for next month’s $200,000 Zia Park Distance Championship.
Vamoose ($21.60) tracked the pace in the third in the Veteran, as Quiet Again led the field through an opening quarter in 24.81 seconds, then was overtaken by Imco Spirit after a half-mile in 49.04. Vamoose rallied through the stretch and covered the distance on a fast track in 1:43.06.
Star Guitar won his sixth consecutive race Saturday night at Delta Downs, when he inhaled the front-runners in the stretch of the $100,000 Gold Cup and went on to score by 2 1/2 lengths. All of his wins during the current streak have come in stakes and he will attempt to continue the trend next month in the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds.
“He is truly a dream,” said Evelyn Benoit, who co-bred and co-owns Star Guitar.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Larry Jones and his owner Rick Porter could have gone the safe route and run Havre de Grace in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic, a race in which she finished third at 3 and would have been heavily favored to win at Churchill Downs on Friday.
Instead, Jones and Porter decided to shoot for the grand prize, Horse of the Year honors, by entering Havre de Grace in Saturday's main event, the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic. That gamble fell three lengths short after Havre de Grace finished fourth behind upset winner Drosselmeyer in the 1 1/4-mile Classic.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There was no fairy-tale ending to Uncle Mo’s comeback.
A star-crossed 3-year-old campaign for last year’s 2-year-old champion colt ended on a sour note as Uncle Mo finished 10th in Saturday’s $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. The Classic result came one year after Uncle Mo won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile over this same Churchill Downs track.
However, trainer Todd Pletcher doesn’t believe it was the same Churchill track at all.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Buckleupbuttercup was up in the final strides to nail favored May Day Rose in the Grade 2, $150,000-added Chilukki Stakes, the finale of the 12-race Breeders’ Cup Saturday card at Churchill Downs.
With Javier Castellano aboard for Avalon Farms and trainer Eddie Kenneally, Buckleupbuttercup finished the one-mile distance in 1:37.03 over a fast track. She paid $10.60.
ARCADIA, Calif. – John Johny Jak won his second restricted stakes of the year in Saturday’s $70,150 Lure Stakes at Santa Anita, overcoming a stretch-long duel with pacesetter Assessment to prevail by a nose.
John Johny Jak ($5) closed from third to reach contention in early stretch and took the lead in the final strides. Ridden by Victor Espinoza, John Johny Jak ran a mile on turf in 1:35.44.
“I thought it would be easier, but the other horse is game,” Espinoza said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A jockey who suffered the most-crushing loss of his career in the same race a year ago, a trainer with whom he had won many major races in years past, and a horse who had been long forgotten since his Belmont Stakes victory 17 months earlier combined to win the richest race of the year on Saturday at Churchill Downs, when Drosselmeyer stormed down the center of the track to take the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Court Vision, the second-most unlikely winner in Breeders' Cup history, won a desperate photo finish with Turallure in the Breeders' Cup Mile and sent Mile legend Goldikova into retirement with her first Breeders' Cup loss.
It looks like the 3-year-old gelding Concealed Identity is going to have to take his show on the road.
Making his second straight start on grass after beginning his career with 12 races on dirt, including a pair of stakes wins, Concealed Identity made it back-to-back impressive scores on the turf by taking Saturday’s $ $60,000 Find Handicap at Laurel Park.
