Nicole’s Miss El, who came close to scoring her first stakes victory when she sprinted against older horses at Saratoga last month, returns to her home track, where she is 5 for 6, for Monday’s featured eighth race at Finger Lakes.
The 3-year-old Nicole’s Miss El looks like a standout in a field of six New York-bred fillies and mares going six furlongs in a third-level optional $15,000 claimer.
Antioch Diamond, who won all four of his Remington Park starts in 2010, remained perfect at the current meet Friday night when he shook a stubborn Conkigo in the stretch to win the $50,000 Remington Park Turf Sprint.
It was Antioch Diamond’s second win at the 2011 meet, which opened in August, and it was also his second consecutive win in the Remington Park Turf Sprint.
POMONA, Calif. – Like grandmother, like granddaughter.
Chalula One won her first start at Fairplex Park on Friday, scoring a 1 3/4-length win in the $50,000 Bangles and Beads Stakes and invoking memories of granddam Mama Simba, the all-time stakes-winning filly or mare in Los Angeles County Fair history.
Mama Simba won five stakes at Fairplex, including the Bangles and Beads in 1991 and 1993. Richard Mandella trained Mama Simba and also trains Chalula One, a 5-year-old by Bertrando whose victory was the first stakes of her 4-for-15 career.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Ask the Moon, the winner of two Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga this summer, will make her California debut in Saturday's $250,000 Lady's Secret Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.
The Lady's Secret, run over 1 1/16 miles, will mark the first meeting between Ask the Moon and Blind Luck, the champion 3-year-filly of 2010. Blind Luck has not started since winning the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 16.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Twirling Candy, one of the top older horses in California this year, will make his next start in a Breeders' Cup race at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5 after missing training earlier this month because of a bruised foot, trainer John Sadler said on Friday.
Twirling Candy was not nominated for the $250,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita next Saturday. Earlier this month, Sadler mentioned the Grade 1 Goodwood as an early autumn goal for Twirling Candy.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Banned, the winner of the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby and two other graded stakes this year, suffered sesamoid injuries during a workout on the turf at Santa Anita on Thursday and was scheduled to undergo surgery on Saturday in an attempt to stabilize the injury.
Trainer Tom Proctor said on Friday that Banned was a "good patient" in the 24 hours following the accident. "His chances are good," Proctor said. "He's making his chances better."
Breeders’ Cup candidate Ben’s Cat is among 151 horses who were pre-entered Friday for next weekend’s 26th annual Jim McKay Maryland Million at Laurel Park.
The list includes 13 horses who were cross-entered in more than one race on the program, which features 11 stakes for the offspring of Maryland-based sires. Post positions for the $1.05 million worth of races will be held at noon Wednesday.
ELMONT, N.Y. - There were three winning tickets purchased on Friday’s pick six at Belmont Park, each returning a healthy $101,581.
There had been a two-day carryover of $114,149 and an additional $343,452 was bet into the pool on Friday.
The winning sequence of 3-9-2-1-7-5 consisted of Hillsboro Bay ($9.30), Natalie Victoria ($3.90), Boots Ahead ($6), Grey Foose ($11.40), Shankopotamus ($17.20) and Associate ($11.40).
There were 148 consolation tickets (5 of 6), each returning $429.
Although the $100,000 KC Juvenile Fillies drew a graded stakes winner in Grade 3 Debutante winner Flashy Lassie – something the Juvenile and Sprint did not – her presence did little to frighten away the opposition.
Eleven other 2-year-old fillies were entered in the mile race on Polytrack, making the Juvenile Fillies, the first of the five stakes, the deepest stakes event on the Saturday Turfway card.
Because the KC Juvenile hasn’t been run since 2008, it is no longer graded, which could become a disadvantage when trying to make the cut for the Breeders’ Cup. Still, Mike Maker is hoping that the exciting gray colt in his stable named Hansen ultimately will showcase his talent on a bigger stage, Breeders’ Cup or no.
