ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita's opened its newly installed sand-and-clay track to training for the first time on Monday, although with only 200 horses on the grounds there was seldom more than 10 horses on the track at one time.
The horses who did test the new surface were mostly limited to jogging on a surface that received approximately three-quarters of an inch of rain overnight.
The new surface received favorable reviews from exercise riders and trainers.
Zenyatta’s journey from California to Kentucky was delayed approximately two hours on Monday morning because of inclement weather in Kentucky.
The wildly popular 6-year-old mare was scheduled to leave trainer John Shirreffs’s base at Hollywood Park about 6:30 a.m. for Ontario airport about 50 miles to the east, but the trip did not start until about 8:30 a.m.
Imco Spirit made the leap from $12,500 claimer to $200,000 stakes winner on Sunday, when he set a track record in the Zia Park Distance Championship. He won by a half-length over pacesetter Schramsberg, while it was another 3 1/2 lengths back in third to favorite Quindici Man.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A cooler head has given Washington Bridge a three-race winning streak, the latest being her graded stakes debut in Sunday’s $150,000 Bayakoa Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Earlier in her career, Washington Bridge was a nervous filly who did not always perform to expectations, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said. As her 3-year-old season has continued, she has calmed. The win in the Grade 2 Bayakoa Handicap proved how far she has progressed.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Pool Play captured the final stakes of the 167-day Woodbine meet Sunday under Patrick Husbands, coming from off a slow pace to prevail in the $177,400 Valedictory in cold and windy conditions.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Alan Garcia swept Sunday’s two juvenile stakes for New York-breds aboard double-digit priced longshots, winning one in a laugher and the other by a hard-fought half-length.
In the $65,000 East View Stakes for New York-bred fillies, Garcia put 26-1 shot Queen’s Harbor on the lead immediately out of the gate and the pair never looked back, winning the race by 4 1/2 lengths over previously undefeated Miss Valentine, the 4-5 favorite.
Jls Mr Bigtime flashed his speed back in August, when he set the fastest qualifying time for the All American Futurity for Quarter Horses at Ruidoso Downs. He was at it again Saturday night at Evangeline Downs, when he broke his own track record in the $526,593 Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Breeders’ Futurity.
Jls Mr Bigtime ($2.40) won the 400-yard race in 19.41 seconds, two weeks after winning his trial in 19.58.
ALBANY, Calif. – At the finish line, Cathy’s Crunches looked like an odds-on runner should, but with one-quarter mile to go in the $76,200 Corte Madera Stakes on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields, she looked beaten.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Left alone on the lead, Aggie Engineer proved impossible to catch in Saturday’s $100,000 Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park.
The result left winning jockey Joe Talamo surprised. He expected someone to challenge Aggie Engineer on the lead, but was never bothered, winning the Grade 3 Native Diver by 1 3/4 lengths over Spurrier.
Trainer Mike Biehler was hoping to see Stachys race closer to the pace than he had been in his recent starts in the $150,000 Zia Park Derby on Saturday, and the horse parlayed a stalking trip into a half-length win in the 1 1/16-mile race. Skip a Smile finished second, 4 3/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Saratoga Yankee.
The Zia Park Derby was the first of a handful of stakes being run over the closing weekend of the meet, which ends on Tuesday.
