LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Heading into Saturday's Grade 3, $109,300 Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs, favorites Shocktime and Culotte had the highest speed figures and the most eye-catching victories. But Flashy Lassie, a maiden $20,000 winner in her only start, had an intangible advantage - that being the good karma coming from trainer Garry Simms.
Team Valor International and trainer H. Graham Motion employed another surface switch to win a 3-year-old stakes as Summer Soiree dominated the Grade 3, $155,000 Boiling Springs Stakes for fillies on the rain-softened turf at Monmouth Park on Saturday.
Animal Kingdom had never run on dirt before capturing the Kentucky Derby for Team Valor and Motion.
This time, the transition was dirt to turf as Summer Soiree rolled to a commanding score in her first race on grass.
Worthington backed up the sizeable Beyer Figure he earned winning his maiden earlier this month with a dominant stakes score Saturday in the $50,000 Minstrel for 2-year-olds at Louisiana Downs.
The race shared a card with the $50,000 Princess, which was won in a three-way photo by Little Ms Protocol ($63.40).
Golddigger's Boy got his fifth victory in a row Saturday, coming back just 11 days after his victory over Pennsylvania-breds in the Docent to win the $200,000 Donald LeVine Memorial Handicap over open company at Parx Racing.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Court of the Realm upset a tough field under Eurico Da Silva to notch his stakes debut in the $269,200 King Edward at Woodbine on Saturday.
Fifty Proof set moderate fractions over a course labeled good, while being pressed along the inside by last year’s winner of the Grade 2 event, Grand Adventure. Court of the Realm ($26.10) raced in fourth through the turn of the one-mile turf event.
When 2-5 favorite Tar Heel Mom stuck a head in front of the 4-1 Eve Giselle after a half-mile of the six-furlong Sweet and Sassy at Delaware Park on Saturday, it looked as if the bettors had gotten it right. But Eve Giselle, under Javier Santiago, came right back inside of Tar Heel Mom, put her away with a furlong to run, and drew off to win the $125,000 stakes for fillies and mares by 2 1/2 lengths.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario—Tu Endie Wei, a half-sister to 2010 Canadian Horse of the Year Biofuel, was an ultra-impressive winner of her career debut in the $155,900 My Dear Stakes Saturday at Woodbine.
Hope for a Win, the 5-2 favorite, set a sizzling opening quarter of 20.70 in the five-furlong dash for 2-year-old fillies before fading in the stretch.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Rajiv Maragh masterfully slowed the pace, and Giants Play dug in when called upon to win the Grade 2, $150,000 New York Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf at Belmont Park on Saturday.
Pace, or lack thereof, made this race. Giants Play took charge at the start of the 1 1/4-mile race and proceeded to back down the clock.
The timer told the tale as fractions of 26.54 seconds, 52.99, and 1:17.65 flashed up as a very relaxed front-runner dictated a dawdling pace.
CINCINNATI - Startin Something led from start to finish to best four other 3-year-old Ohio-accredited fillies in the $50,000 Cincinnatian at River Downs on Saturday afternoon.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Upperline, under a rousing rider by Emme-Jayne Wilson, took over through the final furlong and prevailed by a 3 1/2 lengths in Saturday’s $103,400 Trillium. The Trillium was one of four stakes run at Woodbine on a card topped by the Grade 2 Kingh Edward Stakes.
