The field for the Breeders' Cup Ladies’ Classic continued to shrink on Sunday, when trainer Graham Motion decided to run Aruna in the Filly and Mare Turf on Friday.
Motion was reticent to try Aruna on dirt in a race for the first time. She won the Spinster Stakes on Polytrack in her last start, but all her previous starts had been on turf.
Belmont Park canceled Sunday’s closing-day card as a result of the pre-Halloween storm that dumped a mixture of rain, ice and snow in the area on Saturday and made the main track and turf courses unusable.
Belmont will be open for simulcasting. Among the track being offered is Churchill Downs, which holds its opening-day card today.
The storm also forced Belmont to cancel the final seven races on Saturday’s card including the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap. The Bold Ruler will be rescheduled for next Sunday.
Belmont Park canceled Sunday’s closing-day card as a result of the pre-Halloween storm that dumped a mixture of rain, ice , and snow in the New York area on Saturday and made the main track and turf courses unusable.
Belmont will be open for simulcasting. Among the track being offered is Churchill Downs, which holds its opening-day card today.
The storm also forced Belmont to cancel the final seven races on Saturday’s card, including the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap. The Bold Ruler has been rescheduled for next Sunday.
Belmont Park canceled Sunday’s closing-day card as a result of the pre-Halloween storm that dumped a mixture of rain, ice , and snow in the New York area on Saturday and made the main track and turf courses unusable.
Belmont will be open for simulcasting. Among the track being offered is Churchill Downs, which holds its opening-day card today.
The storm also forced Belmont to cancel the final seven races on Saturday’s card, including the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap. The Bold Ruler has been rescheduled for next Sunday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The California Cup is intended as a showcase for the state’s top Thoroughbreds. Saturday, it was just as much a showcase of top jockey Rafael Bejarano.
Bejarano rode five winners on the nine-race program, including four stakes. He won the day’s final race on Unzip Me in the $125,000 California Cup Distaff.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Courtside saved trainer John Sadler’s month with a surprise win in Saturday’s $100,000 California Cup Sprint at Santa Anita.
At the start of the month, Sadler had five candidates for the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs next weekend, but lost four of them to setbacks in recent weeks – Celtic New Year, Cozi Rosie, Twirling Candy, and Zazu. All but Twirling Candy are expected to race again; Sadler still has Switch in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint on Friday.
ARCADIA, Calif.- His trainer calls him a member of the “B team”, but Norvsky was the top California-bred at Santa Anita on Saturday.
Winning the richest race his career, Norvsky caught a stubborn pacesetter in Lucky Primo to win the $175,000 California Cup Classic, the most lucrative of five stakes for statebreds on Saturday’s nine-race program.
Norvsky was ridden by jockey Rafael Bejarano, his fourth winner of the day.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland’s fall meeting concluded Saturday with record attendance and significant increases in all-sources handle.
A total of 250,163 fans passed through the gates during the 17-day meet, eclipsing the previous mark of 244,145, which was set during the 15-day 2006 spring meeting. Average daily attendance for the fall meet was 14,715, an increase of 8.8 percent over the 2010 fall meet daily average of 13,524.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Oh brother, Charles Lopresti did it again. And so did Julien Leparoux.
One year after closing the 2010 Keeneland fall meet by winning the Grade 2 Fayette Stakes with Successful Dan, Lopresti sent that gelding’s younger half-brother, Wise Dan, out to win Saturday’s 53rd renewal of the $150,000 Fayette before a crowd of 17,320 on closing day of this year’s fall meet.
