Summer Laugh, stretching out around two turns after a convincing win sprinting in her career debut nearly two months ago at Saratoga, held off Days Like This by a head to win Saturday’s $75,000 Blue Hen Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Delaware Park.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Terry Jordan won the $125,800 Victorian Queen Stakes for the second year in a row Saturday at Woodbine.
As if to prove his easy victory in last month’s Aspirant was no fluke, Bug Juice delivered an even more impressive performance upon his second visit to Finger Lakes for Saturday’s richest race of the season, the $282,925 New York Breeders’ Futurity.
A seven-length winner in the six-furlong Aspirant on Labor Day, Bug Juice ($3.90) romped to a 10-length win in the six-furlong Futurity, covering the distance in 1:10.24, the second fastest running in the 48-year history of the stakes.
ELMONT, N.Y. - With several horses aimed at the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Stable wanted to run Girolamo in the Grade 1 Vosburgh Invitational at Belmont Park to see if they had a contender for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
OPELOUSAS, La. – Evangeline Downs will begin its 2010 Quarter Horse season on Tuesday with a nine-race program that gets under way at 12:40 p.m. Central.
The 46-day stand runs through Dec. 18 and will operate on a mostly Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule with Tuesdays added the first two and last two weeks of the season. There will be no racing on Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, or Saturday, Dec. 11.
Traditionally a night track, Evangeline will conduct racing during daylight hours this fall with the exception of a twilight card on Nov. 13 that begins at 5:40 p.m. local time.
Johnie Bye Night owns a 5-for-12 lifetime record racing at Finger Lakes, including three consecutive runnings of the George Barker Memorial Stakes. Despite his past accomplishments and the fact the 8-year-old gelding is dropping to a career-low class level, Johnie Bye Night is not even the strongest part of trainer Charlton Baker’s coupled entry, let alone the favorite, in Tuesday’s featured eighth race at Finger Lakes.
Trainer Todd Fincher won four of the seven Thoroughbred stakes on last fall’s $2 million New Mexico Cup program at Zia Park and will be prepping for another run at the series on Monday.
Fincher will send out Chuchuluco in the featured seventh race, a $35,000 optional claiming allowance sprint for 3-year-olds and up bred in New Mexico. The 5 1/2-furlong race will be the horse’s final prep for the $140,000 New Mexico Cup for 3-year-olds at Zia on Oct. 31.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Cost of Freedom will make his third consecutive appearance in the Grade 1 Ancient Title Stakes at Hollywood Park next Saturday.
But as of Saturday, when Cost of Freedom zipped six furlongs in 1:11.80 in his final pre-race workout, trainer John Sadler did not have a jockey for the two-time stakes winner.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Colizeo, the only graded stakes winner in the field of seven, circled four wide under Ramon Dominguez around the far turn, took command in upper stretch and drew clear to a three-length victory in Saturday’s $70,000 Star of Cozzene Stakes for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park.
Stormy’s Majesty, the Albany Stakes winner, finished second, three-quarters of a length ahead of Our Dark Knight. Calide Valley, Brother Bird, Jackson Bend, and Keep Me Informed completed the order of finish.
MIAMI – Big Drama could have been in New York on Saturday as one of the favorites in Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Vosburgh. Instead, Big Drama spent Saturday afternoon relaxing in his stall at Calder Race Course, having already put in a good day’s work by breezing an easy five furlongs in 1:01.61 seconds over his home course earlier that morning.
Big Drama, among the leading contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs, has not started since finishing second behind Here Comes Ben in the Grade 1 Forego on Sept. 4.