Beulah Park opens its 53-day fall/winter meet Monday for the second year under the ownership of Penn Gaming with changes to the physical plant as well as the wagering format.
A new surface has been put down on the one-mile oval, including work to the base on the turns. The new surface is getting rave reviews, according to Ed Vomacka, Beulah’s racing secretary.
“Even the chronic complainers are saying good things about it, everything I have heard has been positive,” Vomacka said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Laurie Silvera will take two shots at holiday Monday’s $125,000 Bull Page Stakes, when he runs the uncoupled duo of Courtville and Jade Prince in the six-furlong dash for Ontario-sired 2-year-olds at Woodbine.
Courtville prevailed over open maiden special company after racing forwardly in his five-furlong debut, only to be disqualified to second for interference. Menlo Castle, who was placed first, came back to romp in the Simcoe Stakes.
Trainer Jim Meyaard thinks he has two strong chances of winning the $50,000 Harvest Gold Plate with Paseo Alegro and Salt Flat Speed. The 1 1/16-mile Harvest Gold Plate for 3-year-olds and up drew nine horses and goes as race 12 on a 13-race card that will wind up the 2011 Northlands Park meet. Sharing the spotlight is the $50,000 Duchess of York for fillies and mares.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The way she won her turf debut in the Riskaverse Stakes last month at Saratoga, Elusive Pearl certainly appeared headed for graded stakes competition.
While she most likely will end up there eventually, Elusive Pearl will make one more start in an ungraded event when she heads an 11-horse field in Monday’s $100,000 Pebbles Stakes, the featured event on a 10-race Columbus Day card at Belmont Park. The Pebbles, restricted to 3-year-old fillies, is carded at one mile over the Widener turf course.
Point of Reference, last for the first half-mile, made up 2 1/2 lengths in the stretch to edge odds-on favorite California Nectar and Alaska Miss by a neck in the $63,350 Harvest Stakes at the Big Fresno Fair on Friday.
Point of Reference, making her first start since winning the California State Fair Sprint in Sacramento on July 16, was not asked early by jockey Inoel Beato as she trailed her five rivals in the six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares.
Alsvid established himself as the early favorite to sweep Remington Park’s series for 2-year-olds this meet, when he set a torrid pace and kept going for an impressive, 1 1/2-length win in Friday night’s $75,000 Kip Deville. The six-furlong race was the first leg of a series that continues with the $100,000 Clever Trevor in November and the $300,000 Springboard Mile in December.
The $60,000 Duck Dance on Sunday at Belmont Park, run at 6 1/2 furlongs, includes a bevy of stakes winners seemingly past their prime. One horse potentially on the rise is Sunrise Smarty, who could offer a bit of a value in the eight-horse field.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ken Ramsey was laughing and grinning. Imagine that. Ramsey had just watched his homebred 2-year-old filly, Stephanie's Kitten, roll to a 1 1/2-length victory Friday in the $400,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes, the traditional Grade 1 opener of the Keeneland fall meet, and he just couldn't contain his elation.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - It wasn't quite as famous as the race he won in Kentucky in the spring, nor as big an upset, nor as clear-cut. Still, Graham Motion will certainly take it.
Motion was the winning trainer Friday for the Grade 3, $175,000 Phoenix Stakes on opening day of the Keeneland fall meet when Hoofit, under a clever ride from Edgar Prado, held off a sustained rally by Aikenite to prevail by a nose as an 11-1 outsider.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Quiet Giant, who was expected to run in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland, has been taken out of training and will not race again before her sale next month, according to her trainer, Todd Pletcher, and Chris Baker, the farm manager for the late Edward P. Evans, who bred Quiet Giant and whose estate owns her.
