No Advantage, winless in 10 previous starts in 2010, closed out the calendar year with a bang by shipping into Parx Racing to upset Friday’s $75,000 Auld Lang Syne Stakes.
Based at Penn National with trainer Stephanie Beattie, No Advantage ($17.60) drew clear by 1 1/2 lengths under jockey Manuel Chaves despite drifting out in the first turn of the mile-and-70-yard race and drifting again during the stretch run. He completed the distance in 1:42.45 for his first victory since Dec. 15, 2009, ending a season in which he won 6 of 9 starts.
The Sunshine Millions Turf could be the next start for Caracortado, who was third in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds here at Santa Anita on Dec. 26. Caracortado finished 3 1/2 lengths behind race winner Twirling Candy despite racing in traffic on the turn of the seven-furlong race.
Trainer Mike Machowsky said that Caracortado would have made the race “more interesting” with a better trip.
“I think he would have been a lot closer,” Machowsky said.
A last-place finish by 2009 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Dancing in Silks in an allowance race for statebreds on Thursday has left trainer Carla Gaines and owner Ken Kinakin puzzled.
“The horse is fine,” Gaines said. “I wish I had a crystal ball.”
Dancing in Silks ended his 2010 campaign winless in five starts, and failed to finish in the first three in his last four starts of the year.
Gaines said that she and Kinakin have discussed options such as retiring the 6-year-old Dancing in Silks to trying him on turf for the first time since the summer of 2009.
It’s fair to say that Daisy Devine went overlooked in Thursday’s entry-level allowance feature for 2-year-old fillies. The third-time starter had gotten drummed at Keeneland racing on Polytrack in her career debut, and a second-out dirt-sprint maiden win at Fair Grounds had come for a $30,000 claiming price.
“I knew she was doing really well, but I couldn’t make a case for her,” said trainer Andrew McKeever.
Few others could, either, and when Daisy Devine came home one length to the good, she paid $82.20 to win, and that in just a six-horse field.
Fair Grounds will boost overnight purses 5 percent across the board beginning with Thursday’s card, the track announced Friday. Stakes purses, many of which were trimmed during the 2009-2010 meeting, will remain at current levels.
Fair Grounds suffered steep handle declines last season, and structured its purse payments conservatively for this meet. Fair Grounds, as per Churchill Downs Inc. policy, doesn’t publicize handle figures, but Eric Halstrom, general manager and vice president for racing, said business is up this season.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After beginning his career with three wins from his first four starts, Icabad Crane had won just once in his last 17 outings. That one win came over Aqueduct’s inner track in the King’s Point Handicap last March.
Fast Alex won this past Monday’s featured second-level allowance race by three-quarters of a length, but trainer Greg Geier thinks Fast Alex can go much higher than allowance competition. Now 3 for 3 in Fair Grounds dirt routes, Fast Alex has as a tentative long-range goal the New Orleans Handicap in March, Geier said Friday.
“I think he he’s got a lot more room to improve,” said Geier, who already won the first older-horse dirt-route stakes of the Fair Grounds meet, the $60,000 Tenacious, with Country Flavor. “He acts like he’s got more in the tank.”
Enchanted Outlaw missed by a nose last out in his first start in six months, and on Sunday will get a rematch with the horse who caught him on the wire, Double Smart. The pair meet in the $100,000 Albert Dominguez Memorial, a 1 1/16-mile handicap for older New Mexico-breds at Sunland Park. The race has drawn a diverse field of 12.
Trailing apprentice rider Marcelino Pedroza by five winners and veteran Rodney Prescott by four winners heading into Friday night, closing day of Turfway’s holiday meet, jockey Jozbin Santana seems all but assured of falling short in the race for the meet’s leading rider.
