DEL MAR, Calif. -- Champ Pegasus did not get to the races until last December, then took until April to win his first race. But he’s
certainly making up for lost time now. On Sunday at Del Mar, he rallied powerfully to win the Grade 2, $200,000 Del Mar Handicap, which earned him an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs.
“It gives us something to dream about,” said his trainer, Richard Mandella. “He acts like he’ll run all day.”
SHAKOPEE, MINNESOTA – Trainer Mac Robertson saddled five winners and jockey Ry Eikleberry rode four winners on the closing day of the meet Sunday as Canterbury Park celebrated Minnesota Festival of Champions day for statebreds.
Slides Choice and Pay the Man, the two top Ohio-bred females, turned the final mile of Sunday's nine-furlong, $50,000, Rose DeBartolo Memorial Stakes at Thistledown into a match race with very little separating them.
Slides Choice ($4.60), under a energetic ride by Jason Lumpkins, proved best by a neck. Squeezer’s Palace was steadily gaining ground to be third, two lengths farther back.
Unreachable Star came from near the back the back of the pack early and wore down the leaders in the stretch to capture the $88,600 Brickyard Stakes for the second straight year at Hoosier Park on Sunday.
Trained by Tim Glyshaw, Unreachable Star ($4.20) was sixth in the field of 12 Indiana-breds going down the backstretch. Jockey Leandro Goncalves swung the 6-year-old Unreachable Star out into the stretch and rallied to draw clear late to a one-length victory in the six-furlong sprint.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Rafael Bejarano, the second-leading rider at Del Mar this summer, escaped serious injury but will not ride the remainder of the card Sunday at Del Mar following an accident in the day's third race in which he was thrown from his mount.
Bejarano was released from Scripps La Jolla Hospital around 5 p.m. Pacific on Sunday after being taken there for evaluation.
"He's fine. No breaks, nothing. He's been cleared to ride, but he won't ride again until Wednesday," said Joe Ferrer, Bejarano's agent.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Just Jenda went out a winner, decisively beating 3-5 favorite Malibu Prayer by 3 1/2 lengths on Sunday in the Grade 2, $294,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes at Monmouth Park.
Owners Larry and Cindy Jones announced before the race that the Molly Pitcher would be last race for their 4-year-old filly.
Just Jenda departed in style with yet another win at her favorite track. Eight for 17 in her career, Just Jenda was 4-0-1 in 5 races at Monmouth.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Approaching the quarter pole of Sunday’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga, Rachel Alexandra, who had led throughout, edged away from her pace-pressing rival Life At Ten. Still, her jockey, Calvin Borel was worried.
And, as it turned out, for good reason.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Sid Attard saddled the first two finishers in Sunday’s $224,800 Play the King Stakes, Smokey Fire and Jungle Wave, who were separated by just a neck at the finish of the seven-furlong turf sprint, which serves as a prep for the Sept. 19 Woodbine Mile.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Super Saver, the Kentucky Derby winner, will likely be sent to the Rood and Riddle Equine Clinic in Kentucky this week to get a thorough examination in the wake of his 10th-place finish to Afleet Express in Saturday’s $1 million Travers Stakes.
Though trainer Todd Pletcher said he could find nothing amiss with Super Saver - aside from some cuts on his legs - on Sunday morning, he and his owners, the WinStar Farm of Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt, want to do additional diagnostic tests on the colt.
While trainer Todd Pletcher was disappointed in Super Saver’s performance in Saturday's Travers at Saratoga, he was naturally thrilled with Discreetly Mine’s 1 1/4-length-victory in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop. Pletcher didn’t want Discreetly Mine to have to go gate to wire, but with the track so favoring speed - all races to that point had been run in front-running fashion - he felt he had no choice.