Fri, 11/26/2010 - 18:08

Wiley-Wagner ends comeback after winning first race since 1996

Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club
Mary Wiley-Wagner, 47, who came out of retirement in August, wins her first race Friday aboard Sonata Brae.

Mary Wiley-Wagner, a cancer survivor who came out of retirement after May’s inaugural Lady Legends for the Cure Race at Pimlico, won for the first time in nearly 14 years in Friday’s last race at Laurel Park. Wiley-Wagner, 47, promptly announced she was retiring again.

Sonata Brae ($10.40) defeated 10 other maiden claimers, rallying from off the pace to prevail by three-quarters of a length. Wiley-Wagner rode the 3-year-old filly Sonata Brae, trained by Tim Keefe, in all five career starts, including four consecutive in-the-money finishes.

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 16:32

Spacy Tracy wins Top Flight

Adam Coglianese/NYRA
Spacy Tracy, Jeremy Rose up, wins the Top Flight.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Spacy Tracy continued her transformation from a solid turf horse to perhaps an even better dirt horse with a three-quarter-length victory over Our Khrysty in Friday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct. It was 1 1/4 lengths back to pacesetter Qualia in third.

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 16:29

Sebastian Flyte primed for peak effort in Hollywood Derby

BENOIT PHOTO
Sebatian Flyte, winning his U.S. debut at Del Mar on Sept. 4, is finally at full strength for Sunday's Hollywood Derby.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Four months after planned, Sebastian Flyte can emerge from obscurity Sunday at Hollywood Park, where the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby is his for the taking.

Ben Cecil trains Sebastian Flyte, an attractive chestnut making his third start in the U.S., and the quietly optimistic trainer admits, “I like my chances.”

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 16:20

Brown has Big A training title within reach

Barbara D. Livingston
Awesome Feather, Jeffrey Sanchez up, wins the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The month of November began on somewhat of a disappointing note for Chad Brown as he watched a horse he formerly trained, More Than Real, win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs.

The month has gotten progressively better for the 31-year-old trainer.

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 16:00

Texan making his presence known at Fair Grounds

Lou Hodges Jr.
Milwaukee Miracle, Donnie Meche up, wins the 2009 Gentilly.

NEW ORLEANS – Say this about trainer Bob Young: He is not shy about entering his horses.

Young, a Texan, is spending his first winter at Fair Grounds, and he has come out running. No wins yet, but when the first racing week of this meet ends Sunday, Young, barring scratches, will have sent out 11 starters. On Saturday’s card alone, he was to have six runners.

“I just had horses that fit the book here,” Young said while waiting to saddle Arrowmaker, who would finish second in the second race on a sloppy Friday afternoon at Fair Grounds. “I was surprised so many got in.”

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 15:52

Cost of Freedom may get chance to return to dirt in Palos Verdes

Benoit & Associates
Cost of Freedom could run next in next month's On Trust Handicap or await the Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita in January.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Cost of Freedom is so old that he was around before California’s synthetic track era.

The 7-year-old Cost of Freedom won his maiden in a $40,000 claimer at Del Mar on a dirt surface as a 3-year-old in August 2006, the final year before all the state’s major tracks went to synthetic surfaces. Since then, Cost of Freedom has been claimed for $50,000 by current owners Gary and Cecil Barber and trainer John Sadler, and has won four stakes, including Thursday’s $100,000 Vernon Underwood Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 15:23

The Goodbye Kisser going for five wins in a row

Even though trainer Paul Jones has put away American Runaway for the year, he still has a standout 2-year-old to run Sunday in the Grade 1, $200,000 Southwest Juvenile Quarter Horse Championship at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M.

The Goodbye Kisser will be seeking her fifth straight win when she starts in the 440-yard invitational. The race has drawn a deep field of 10 that includes West Coast Hawk, winner of the Grade 1 Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos in May, and Prospect to the Top, who took the Grade 2 Hobbs America Futurity last month at Zia.

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 15:06

Pinnacle Entertainment to buy River Downs for $45 million

The casino company Pinnacle Entertainment has an agreement in place to purchase River Downs for a reported $45 million, Pinnacle Entertainment has reported in a press release published on its web site. The release went on to say that the sale of the Cincinnati track was expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.

Among the Pinnacle holdings are seven casinos, including Belterra, located about 50 miles southwest of the track in Florence, Ind.

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 15:03

Fans get opportunity to say good-bye to Mine That Bird

Barbara D. Livingston
Mine That Bird will appear in the paddock before Sunday's seventh race and in the winner's circle after that race is run.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – They will scatter like the wind after the fall meet ends Sunday at Churchill Downs, departing for Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and elsewhere. The horses, that is. One will even leave Monday morning on a van bound for New Mexico, completing a storybook circle that began a little more than 18 months ago.

Fri, 11/26/2010 - 14:52

Hooper a possible late-season target for St. Maximus Gato

MIAMI – St. Maximus Gato has come a long ways in a short time. He may go even farther before the year is out if trainer Donald Hunt elects to run his still lightly raced 3-year-old in the Grade 3 Fred W. Hooper Jr. Handicap here at Calder on Dec. 11.