Your browser does not support iframes
ELMONT, N.Y. – Chad Brown won 22 races during the Saratoga meeting. Few were more impressive than Fantastic Song, who overcame a tough post and wide trip to win his debut by a head going 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Factor will have few rivals when he starts as a heavy favorite in the $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes for sprinters at Santa Anita next Saturday.
The impressive winner of the Grade 1 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 28 in his first start since April, The Factor is considered one of the top West Coast hopefuls for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5.
A winner of 4 of 6 starts and $457,180, The Factor recovered from his win in the Pat O’Brien quickly, trainer Bob Baffert said on Friday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Georgie’s Angel, currently trained by Todd Pletcher, and Select Cat, formerly trained by Pletcher, head a field of five entered in the Grade 3, $100,000 Tempted for juvenile fillies.
Georgie’s Angel won her debut at Churchill, the Grade 3 Schuylerville on opening day at Saratoga, and comes off a fourth-place finish in the Spinaway.
“She got stuck in a tough spot down inside the whole way,” Pletcher said. “She wasn’t quite quick enough to make the lead and wasn’t quite slow enough to get cleared off and never got into a real comfort zone.”
MIAMI – The 94 day Calder meeting ended Friday and with it the jockey and trainer races that were, for all intents and purposes, over months earlier. The 45-day Tropical at Calder session began Saturday.
Luis Saez nearly lapped the field with 142 winners to defend the jockey title he won for the first time in 2010, riding nearly twice as many winners as runner-up Jose Alvarez, who had 77. Juan Leyva, a rising star during the second half of the meet, finished third with 73.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The memory of Acclamation’s win in the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes on turf at Del Mar in July was foremost on trainer Don Warren’s mind on Friday.
“I always get chills watching him come down the lane,” Warren recalled. “He looked like no horse in the country would have beaten him that day.”
Acclamation won the Read by 3 1/4 lengths, and followed with a hard-fought head win in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Del Mar’s Polytrack surface on Aug. 28. Those races represent the third and fourth wins of Acclamation’s current four-race winning streak.
ELMONT, N.Y. – She Digs Me goes for his fourth consecutive victory and third straight stakes score when he heads a contentious field set to run six furlongs in Sunday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Nashua Stakes for 2-year-olds at Belmont Park.
The Nashua, traditionally run as a one-turn mile at Aqueduct and a prep for the Remsen in late November, was moved to the Belmont meet along with the Grade 3 Tempted and shortened in distance. Those two stakes as well as the Miss Grillo and Pilgrim, 1 1/16-mile turf races for juvenile fillies and juvenile males, respectively, will be run Sunday.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Uncle Mo will have only three horses to beat in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park.
Sangaree, the runner-up in last year’s Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park, will scratch from the Kelso because of a cough.
“He started coughing yesterday, and he continued this morning,” said Rick Mettee, Godolphin’s New York-based assistant trainer. “It’s too bad, because we were looking forward to running him”
OCEANPORT, N.J. – The mighty Secretariat closed out his 2-year-old season with a victory in the Garden State Stakes at the defunct Garden State Park.
The $75,000 juvenile event returns Sunday at Monmouth Park with six entrants, none of whom could be branded a superstar at this point.
All six have won a single race. It could be a compact gathering as two runners, Angel’s Tune and Clip the Coupons, were cross-entered in Sunday’s $150,000 Nashua Stakes at Belmont Park.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Class Included is going to be an overlay when she runs in the Grade 3, $100,000 Ballerina for fillies and mares at Hastings on Sunday.
Class Included will offer some value in the 1 1/8-mile feature that drew 12 horses because it will be hard for many people to resist the four-horse Glen Todd-Patrick Kinsella owned entry of Castinette Dancer, Summer Song, Classic Alley Kat, and Dashing Daisy. All four are multiple stakes winners and any of them would attract substantial support on her own.
