OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Five minutes before the horses loaded into the starting gate for Saturday’s Grade 2 Remsen Stakes, trainer Bill Mott, standing in the Aqueduct paddock, took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders.
“Cold or nervous?” someone asked.
“Both,” said Mott, the trainer of heavily favored To Honor and Serve.
About seven minutes later, after To Honor and Serve won the $200,000 Remsen, Mott could exhale with some relief, but now he has six months to deal with a case of Derby fever.
MIAMI – The weights are out for next Saturday’s Grade 3 Tropical Turf Handicap, and among the trio of horses at the top of the list under 120 pounds is the multiple Grade 1 winner Presious Passion. But even though trainer Mary Hartmann briefly considered running him in the race, she has opted to take the more conservative and logical route and wait two more weeks for the Grade 3 W.L. McKnight Handicap on Dec. 18.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Monday will not simply be another day at the office for Portland Meadows’s leading jockey Joe Crispin.
Crispin will lead a team of fellow Portland Meadows riders – Javier Martinez, Mark Anderson, and Troy Stillwell – in the second Annual XpressBet Jockey Challenge against Team Southern California’s Joel Rosario, Joe Talamo, David Flores, and Martin Pedroza.
Prize money of $20,000 is up for grabs in the four-race series in which jockeys were randomly assigned mounts.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Blind Luck, the nation’s leading 3-year-old filly with five stakes wins this year, may not make her next start until the $150,000 El Encino Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 16, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Friday.
Second in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5 in her most recent start, Blind Luck worked a half-mile in 49.80 seconds at Hollywood Park on Friday.
Hollendorfer said Blind Luck may be considered for the $250,000 La Brea Stakes over seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, but is more likely for the El Encino.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Gypsy’s Warning saved her best race of 2010 for her last race of 2010.
In Friday’s Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes, Gypsy’s Warning rallied from fifth in a field of seven to win the $250,000 mile turf race by 1 1/4 lengths over the multiple stakes winner Wasted Tears. The win left trainer Graham Motion certain that the distance is ideal for Gypsy’s Warning.
“The mile is really right up this filly’s street,” he said by phone from Maryland after the race. “She’s a really honest filly. This is pretty exciting stuff.”
Jockey Luis Martinez Jr. won the 1,000th race of his career on Friday when he guided Turnpike Mike to victory in the fourth race at Beulah Park, an Ohio-bred optional claiming race.
Martinez, who began his career in earnest in 1998 after riding in a single race in 1997, came back to win the seventh race aboard Hum That Tune
Watkins Glen, who was good enough to finish second as a maiden in a minor stakes at Saratoga, and Interrogate, who has yet to run as well on dirt as she did in three starts on a synthetic surface, are among seven 2-year-old fillies all seeking their second lifetime victory in Monday’s featured ninth race at Parx Racing.
The first-level allowance, with a purse of $47,000, will be contested at six furlongs on the main track.
ALBANY, Calif. - Cigar Man won a head bob from Hot Chaco to take the Grade 3, $100,900 All American Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Friday to provide trainer Vladimir Cerin and jockey Juan Hernandez with milestone victories.
Cigar Man unleashed a late rally, outfinishing Hot Chaco, who caught pacesetting favorite Our Nautique inside the sixteenth pole in the 1 1/8-mile race. The victory was the first stakes win for the 5-year-old Drewman gelding and provided Cerin with his 1,000th training victory. It also marked the first U.S. stakes victory by the 18-year-old Hernandez.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Eight weeks after she inherited the lead and held on to finish third in the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Hollywood Park, Gypsy’s Warning was the beneficiary of a perfect trip in Friday’s $250,000 Matriarch Stakes.
The win in the Grade 1 Matriarch was an instant milestone for the 5-year-old South African-bred Gypsy’s Warning. She won the Group 1 South Africa Fillies Classic in March 2009, but the Matriarch was her first win at the highest level in the United States.
She’s All In closed strongest of all to win her third consecutive race in the $50,000 Ladies on the Lawn at Remington Park on Friday. The 7 1/2-furlong turf race was one of two Oklahoma-bred stakes on the special daytime card.
