OLDSMAR Fla. - Swinging off the rail into the stretch for racing room, Suzzona ran down the leader late to post a half-length upset in the $75,000 Lightning City Stakes on opening day of the Tampa Bay Downs meet Saturday.
With Hector Ramos contributing a well-judged ride, Suzzona covered the five furlongs over a firm Tampa turf course in 56.83 seconds to notch her fourth win from her last five outings.
INGLEWOOD, Calif.- Cost of Freedom lowered the Hollywood Park track record for five furlongs to 56.14 seconds with an easy win in Saturday’s $71,706 Miles Tyson Stakes.
Cost of Freedom ($2.80) led throughout, and won by 4 1/4 lengths over Quick Enough with jockey Joe Talamo merely guiding the 7-year-old gelding through the stretch. Quick Enough finished 2 1/2 lengths in front of Square Deal, who was followed by El Scorpio.
Bamaha Breeze and Lt. Hopeful were scratched early Saturday.
The 3-year-old Bella Medaglia looked like a filly with a stakes future last winter in New Orleans. Now, who knows what the future holds? Bella Medaglia hasn’t made a start since she hurt herself finishing fourth in the Silverbulletday Stakes on Feb. 20, but she is set to make her comeback in the featured third race Monday at Fair Grounds.
Will trainer Juan Vazquez win a race for himself or his primary client? Assuming there are no scratches, that’s the key question for handicappers pondering which horse to play in Tuesday’s featured ninth race at Parx Racing.
Vazquez, coming off a superb season at Delaware Park in which he led the trainer standings with 83 victories, will saddle the uncoupled pair of Bernadette’s Song and Ms Vanenzza in a six-furlong sprint open to third-level allowance runners and $40,000 claimers. Both of Vazquez’s horses look like prime contenders in a field of six chasing a $50,000 purse.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The lesson that Industry Leader learned when he finished second in his stakes debut last month may prove invaluable in Saturday’s $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park.
Industry Leader was beaten 1 1/2 lengths by Premier Pegasus in the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue Stakes over seven furlongs on Nov. 20, but did not have the best of trips.
MIAMI – There are three Grade 1 winners among the 22 horses nominated for this year’s renewal of the Grade 2 W.L. McKnight Handicap, and from all indications, all three are planning to show up at Calder Saturday for the 1 1/2-mile fixture.
Presious Passion, who won this race in 2007 and 2008, will make his fourth appearance in the McKnight. He’s expected to be joined in the starting gate by Prince Will I Am, winner of the Grade 1 Jamaica Handicap on Oct. 9, and Telling, who has won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer each of the last two years at Saratoga.
One Quick First Down, the second-longest shot in the field, won the $2,033,700 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity at Los Alamitos on Friday evening, giving the Vessels Stallion Farm a poignant victory in the track’s richest race.
The win came four months after Scoop Vessels died in a plane crash in Oregon, and two weeks after One Quick First Down’s broodmare sire, First Down Dash, died at Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, Calif. First Down Dash, who was 27 at the time of his death, is Quarter Horse racing’s all-time leading sire.
Jockey Cliff Berry tied a North American riding record by winning with all seven of his mounts at Remington Park on Friday night. Russell Baze was the most recent rider to win seven races on a card without a loss at Bay Meadows on Aug. 18, 2006.
Just two other jockeys are known to have gone 7 for 7 on a card, Tim Moccasin in 2001 and Richard DePass in 1980. The record for most wins on a single card is nine, which Eddie Castro set with 11 mounts at Calder Race Course, in 2005. Chris Antley won nine races on a single day in 1987, riding at both Aqueduct and The Meadowlands.
Four horses with stakes victories on their resumes this season, including Rummy’s Command, the upset winner of last month’s Sophomore Sprint, are among seven late-season 3-year-olds entered in Monday night’s feature race at Mountaineer Racetrack.
The 5 1/2-furlong sprint, which goes as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 7 p.m. Eastern, is a no-conditions allowance, restricted to 3-year-olds, with a purse of $33,700.
