Im a Bear’s last-race company line could become quite notable before she runs Sunday in the $55,000 Permian Basin at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M. At least three of the horses she faced were to start in stakes between Friday and Saturday night, just in advance of Im a Bear going to post as the probable favorite in the Permian Basin.
The Permian Basin is a six-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies and it drew a full field of 12.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Somali Lemonade wowed a drizzled Keeneland crowd of 8,608 with a sensational late run Thursday in winning the Grade 3, $150,000 Jessamine Stakes, giving trainer Michael Matz a 2-year-old filly for the Breeders' Cup to go along with his BC Juvenile favorite, Union Rags.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey David Cohen won his 1,000th career race Thursday when he guided Bobs Pinup Girl to a head victory over longshot Chicks in Slacks in the ninth race at Belmont Park.
Cohen, 26, came into the day needing two wins to reach the milestone. He won the opener aboard Emma’s Posse ($4.20), but lost with his next five mounts before getting Bobs Pinup Girl ($18.80) home in the last.
Cohen began riding in 2004 in Southern California and moved his tack to New York in 2010, where he finished as the second-leading rider on the New York Racing Association circuit.
ARCADIA - Candrea and Drill, two of trainer Bob Baffert’s best hopes for the Breeders’ Cup races next month, each worked a half-mile in 46.60 seconds at Santa Anita on Thursday.
Candrea and Drill had the same time but did not work together. Baffert timed Drill galloping out six furlongs in 1:11. A hopeful for the BC Juvenile, Drill was second to Creative Cause in the Grade 1 Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1. Creative Cause is a top contender for the BC Juvenile, which is run over 1 1/16 miles.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After a couple of unsuccessful tries in Grade 1 marathon races, Boisterous drops back in class and distance when he heads the field for Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Knickerbocker Stakes at Belmont Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jeranimo, the winner of the Grade 2 Oak Tree Mile at Santa Anita last Saturday, will make his next start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, trainer Mike Pender confirmed on Thursday.
“He’s tearing the barn down,” Pender said.
Jeranimo won his first stakes of 2011 in the Oak Tree Mile, a race preceded by an eighth-place finish in the Pacific Classic on Del Mar’s synthetic main track on Aug. 28. “He came out of this race so much better than the Pacific Classic,” Pender said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup won’t be the only graded turf stakes trainer Graham Motion will attempt to win on the front end Saturday.
While Motion will be at Keeneland Saturday to run Summer Soiree in the QE II against Winter Memories, he will watch on television as Unbridled Humor will likely attempt to go gate to wire in the Grade 3, $100,000 Athenia Stakes at Belmont Park.
The gang’s all here. Well, almost.
The field for the $400,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday will include six of the nine horses who ran in last month’s Grade 2 Super Derby, including winner Prayer for Relief.
The reunion at Remington Park comes in the richest race of the meet. In all, a field of 12 was drawn Thursday for the Oklahoma Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race to be run on the lone Sunday card of the season. There will be a special afternoon post of 1:30 p.m. Central, and the program will include the $250,000 Remington Park Oaks and $125,000 Remington Green.
MIAMI − Trainer Phil Gleaves has had a year to think about Mad Flatter’s one-sided win over his odds-on Mambo Meister in the 2010 Spend A Buck. That day, Mad Flatter cruised to an easy lead and scored by 6 1/4 lengths in a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
There will be no free ticket to the Breeders’ Cup on the line when Mambo Meister and Mad Flatter meet again Saturday at Calder in the Grade 3 Spend A Buck, but Gleaves is grateful to have the opportunity to reverse last year’s setback.
Mother Nature must like the El Joven at La Senorita.
The drought conditions that have kept Retama Park from racing on turf all season have lifted some and the San Antonio-area track will be able to run Saturday night’s stakes double on the grass. They will be the first turf races at the meet that opened Sept. 1.
“I think the ground will have some cut and give because we’ve had some bunches of rain here the past couple of weeks,” said Doug Vair, a spokesman for Retama. “I don’t think the ground will be hard.”
