DEL MAR, Calif. – Joel Rosario won five races at Del Mar on Saturday, including two stakes, and came back to win another stakes race on Sunday, in the process wresting the lead in the jockeys’s standings from Rafael Bejarano, 43 wins to 41, going into the final seven days of this meet.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It took a while, but the significance of Afleet Express winning Saturday’s $1 million Travers Stakes was beginning to hit trainer Jimmy Jerkens on Monday morning.
“It’s finally starting to sink in, the importance of it, and it feels good,” Jerkens said outside his barn. “You don’t have a whole lot of time to savor things. It was extremely satisfying, no doubt about that.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The temporary rail on the turf course was in the outermost lane 5 last week at Woodbine, a position that aided front-runners racing along the inside. Speed should still be effective this week, with that rail in lane 4, and that may give Daniel Be Good an edge in the opener, a second-level allowance with a $62,500-60,000-claiming option.
Daniel Be Good placed in his first two races of the spring, both at the first allowance category, and was a fading fifth after setting the pace in the June 9 New Providence Stakes.
Golden Gate Fields has yet to finalize its 2010 fall meet stakes schedule or its 2011 schedule, but has already set Feb. 12, 2011, as the date for the Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby.
The winner of that race could eventually earn a $5.5 million bonus with a victory in the Preakness through MI Developments’ recently announced Preakness bonus program.
Golden Gate is hopeful the bonus program could pay dividends for the 2011 running the El Camino Real Derby, which, with apologies to the Grade 2 San Francisco Mile, is arguably Northern California’s most important race.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Cliff Sise Jr. has been known to pop with a first-timer often enough, but he didn’t think he had Miles Rules at her absolute best when she made her debut on the final weekend of the Hollywood Park meeting.
“I didn’t think I had her fit at all,” he said. “I was just going easy with her.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Gary Contessa has had a frustrating Saratoga meeting. But Contessa says he’s still got several live horses yet to fire during the final week of the session, including Arch Support in Wednesday’s $70,000 P.G. Johnson Stakes for 2-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Arch Support gave Contessa one of his three victories here this summer, when she won a maiden race on the turf. And Contessa thinks his filly is both mature and talented enough to successfully take the step right into stakes company.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Overvalued would not be a term used to describe Overvalued’s worth after her performance in the $51,000 Lassie Stakes at Hastings last Thursday. Breaking alertly with Dave Wilson aboard, Overvalued went on to win the 6 1/2-furlong Lassie by an easy seven lengths.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Sid Attard had saddled the last two winners of the Play the King Stakes, with Jungle Wave prevailing last year after Just Rushing turned the trick in 2008. On Sunday, Attard completed a Play the King triple with Smokey Fire, who outfinished Jungle Wave to score by a neck under new rider Jono Jones in the Grade 2, seven-furlong turf race for 3-year-olds and up.
COLUMBUS, Neb. - Sweet Violet and Bumper posted mild upsets in their respective divisions of the Columbus Breeders' Special Stakes for Nebraska-bred 3-year-olds at Columbus on Sunday afternoon.
Sweet Violet gained her first stakes win as she rallied past a tiring Miss Affair, the 4-5 favorite, then held off Zena's Affair to win the fillies division. Miss Affair set the early pace in the 6 1/2-furlong race and opened up by four lengths at the top of the stretch. She faded to third, beaten 1 3/4 lengths.
AUBURN, Wash. – Couldabenthewhisky won the $50,000 WTBOA Lads Stakes, and a maiden, Lady Golightly, scored a $42.40 upset in the $50,000 Barbara Shinpoch Stakes as Emerald Downs’ 2-year-old division further sorted itself out with a pair of stakes races Sunday.
Couldabenthewhisky, winning for the third time in four career starts, prevailed by a half-length over Winter Warlock in the Lads. The Bonnie Jenne trainee ran one mile in 1:38.80 and paid $11.20.