LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Saturday’s Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile wasn’t decided until the wire, with the speedy Hansen outlasting favored Union Rags by a head. But the race was won around the Juvenile’s two turns.
Front-running Hansen was able to carve out a trouble-free trip in the 1 1/16-mile race, establishing a clear lead on the inside – in stark contrast to Union Rags, who after breaking from post 10, was shuffled back to sixth early and hung four to five wide throughout.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The baby-faced gene runs strong through the O’Brien family. Trainer Aidan has always looked much younger than his actual age, and his son, 18-year-old Joseph, could pass for 14 in a pinch. Aidan also has passed along another significant strand of DNA – high-class horsemanship. Joseph O’Brien rode in his first Breeders’ Cup race Saturday afternoon at Churchill Downs, and he won it in a romp, booting home St Nicholas Abbey to become, at age 18 years 161 days, the youngest rider to win a Breeders’ Cup race.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Mark Casse-trained Masked Maiden came from last in a five-horse field to post an upset in her stakes debut in the $180,500 Maple Leaf at Woodbine on Saturday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Boisterous, fresh off a win in the Knickerbocker three weeks ago for Shug McGaughey, caught Harrods Creek in midstretch and drove clear to score right back in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Red Smith Handicap, New York’s final graded turf stakes of the season for older males.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Donnie Von Hemel has won almost 1,900 races in his 27-year training career, but none bigger than Saturday afternoon when Caleb's Posse stormed down the center of the Churchill Downs stretch to win the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile by four lengths.
Shackleford, the Preakness winner, finished second by 1 3/4 lengths over longshot Tres Borrachos. Trappe Shot finished fourth and was followed in the order of finish by Tapizar, Jersey Town, Wilburn, the 5-2 favorite, The Factor, and Irrefutable.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After Regally Ready won a Churchill Downs turf allowance last fall by nearly eight lengths, Scott Blasi was convinced of one thing. “This one’s the real deal,” said Blasi, the assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen.
On Saturday, with Blasi cheering before the television cameras, Regally Ready proved all that and more by dominating the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill, defeating 13 others as the 2-1 favorite. Country Day, a 33-1 shot, was second, 1 1/2 lengths behind the winner and another three-quarters of a length before Perfect Officer.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Amazombie, the horse nobody wanted, gave trainer Bill Spawr his first Breeders’ Cup victory when he rallied to a neck victory over Force Freeze in Saturday’s $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs.
Amazombie is owned by Spawr in partnership with Tom Sanford and gave jockey Mike Smith his 14th Breeders’ Cup win.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – European turf horses were shut out in two races on the Friday Breeders' Cup program at Churchill Downs, but it didn't take long for them to get on the scoreboard Saturday when Wrote, a 2-year-old Coolmore colt, rolled to victory in the $1 million BC Juvenile Turf, the first grass race of the second day of the 2011 Breeders' Cup.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In a battle of Churchill Downs specialists, Salty Strike proved the queen of the Churchill main track by defeating favored Dancinginherdreams by four lengths in the $87,700 Dream Supreme Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard.
The race was essentially won with a move on the turn under Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, who sent Salty Strike toward the inside to rally, saving valuable ground.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Afleet Again, the longest shot in the field of 11, made an outside run the final time around the far turn and sustained it through the stretch to post a 41-1 stunner in the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
The Marathon was marred by an injury to 3-1 favorite A. U. Miner, who raced far back early and went wrong the final time around the far turn. A. U. Miner was diagnosed with fractured sesamoids in his right foreleg.
