DEL MAR, Calif. - California Flag won for the first time since the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in Wednesday’s $102,175 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar, a performance that trainer Brian Koriner hopes will put the 6-year-old gelding on course for the 2010 BC Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs in November.

California Flag ($4.20) won the five-furlong turf sprint by a nose over Quick Enough and My Summer Slew, who finished in a dead heat for second. Cost of Freedom, the Grade 1 winner making his turf debut, finished fourth, beaten a half-length.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Receiving a heady ride from Alan Garcia, Awakino Cat made it back-to-back victories in Saratoga’s $70,000 Troy Stakes, outfinishing a stubborn Ravalo to win the turf sprint stakes by a neck.

Ravalo, making his turf debut after running his first 36 starts on dirt and who was part of a three-ply speed duel, held second by three-quarters of a length over the late-running and wide Yield Bogey.

In a teleconference conducted Monday morning by the Nebraska State Racing Commission, Horsemen’s Atokad Downs in South Sioux City, Neb., was allowed to waive several of the commission’s rules to conduct a scaled down one-race meet next Tuesday afternoon.

Star Guitar, the Louisiana-bred horse of the year who successfully defended his title against open company in last Saturday’s $100,000 Evangeline Mile, came out of the race in good order and is ready to resume his quest to become one of racing newest millionaires, according to trainer Al Stall Jr.
“He had to work a little bit,” said Stall in reference to Star Guitar’s spirited stretch battle with 2008 Mile winner Ide Like a Double and pace contributor Chief Jay.

Jockey Scott Stevens is recovering from injuries he sustained in a fall at Canterbury Park on July 2. Stevens was one of four jocks involved in the spill and suffered multiple injuries, including punctured lungs, multiple rib and spinal fractures, and two broken collarbones. Stevens spent two days in intensive care, and nine total days in the hospital.
“I am doing all right,” Stevens said. “I still have some numbness in my fingers. I am able to walk and keep myself busy that way. All my limbs and everything are fine. In about two months, I should be able to get back on horses.”

Shadowbdancing and Jonesboro, who have accounted for the last two runnings of the Grade 2 Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows, will start in separate six-figure stakes Saturday night at Remington Park.
The races, the $150,000 Governor’s Cup and the $200,000 Remington Park Sprint Cup, were drawn Wednesday. Each went with seven horses. The stakes kick off the 26-race, $3 million stakes schedule this meet at Remington.

In what shapes up as an extremely strong race, five of the 11 Ohio-breds in Friday’s $50,000 Honey Jay Stakes at Thistledown are either current or past statebred champions.
The rugged 9-year-old multiple stakes winner Catlaunch was the top Ohio handicap male last year and Ohio horse of the year in 2008. He has won 32 of 78 starts and $792,054. Catlaunch, trained by Ivan Vasquez, is a double stakes winner this year. He has won 17 of his 39 starts going the Honey Jay distance of six furlongs.

Runnning Brook Gal will begin her quest for an All American double on Friday, when she starts in one of seven trials for the Grade 1 All American Quarter Horse Derby at Ruidoso Downs.
She will be making her second start of the year in the fourth race. The trials will run from the third through ninth races on a program that begins at noon Mountain.

In the past performances for the Secretariat Stakes, you will see just to the left of the "3" designating Wigmore Hall’s age a "g." That "g," meaning "gelding," is the reason Wigmore Hall has made it as a racehorse in 2010.

AUBURN, Wash. – Budding rivals as 2-year-olds in 2008, Gallant Son and Noosa Beach will meet again on a bigger stage Sunday at Emerald Downs in the 75th running of the Grade 3 Longacres Mile.

Gallant Son, now a leading turf miler in Southern California, drew the No. 8 post position in a full field of 12 when entries were drawn Wednesday afternoon. A five-time stakes winner – three times at Emerald, twice in California – Gallant Son was made the 5-2 morning-line favorite by Emerald Downs handicapper Rob Rao.