ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Smokey Fire overhauled the tiring 2-5 favorite, Hollywood Hit, in the stretch to take Saturday’s $168,000 Bold Venture Stakes at Woodbine.

Hollywood Hit set wind-aided fractions of 21.91 seconds and 43.56 in the six-furlong event, while being pressed by two-time Bold Venture winner Fatal Bullet, who was hard ridden by Eurico Da Silva. Smokey Fire raced three lengths off the lead on the turn in third and then came wide in the stretch, overtaking Hollywood Hit at the sixteenth pole en route to a 1 3/4-length win, in a time of 1:15.78.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Regardless of how Gallant Gent runs in Wednesday’s Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar, the gelding was a bargain acquisition for $40,000 last summer.

“I think he was a good claim,” trainer Craig Lewis said. “He’s exceeded our expectation.”

Since being claimed in July 2009, Gallant Gent has won 2 of 7 starts, a minor stakes at Fairplex Park last fall, and has earned $95,400.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Jockey Chris Landeros, the leading rider at Lone Star Park, has been suspended 14 days for careless riding in a July 11 turf race in which there was a two-horse spill. The suspension, which was issued by the Lone Star stewards on Friday, is scheduled to run from Aug. 19 to Sept. 1. The spill came in the seventh race, an allowance route for fillies and mares. Landeros was aboard Venetian Causeway, who finished fourth but was disqualified and placed ninth for interference in upper stretch.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Leading rider Quincy Welch was taken to Royal Alexandra hospital to check for possible broken bones following a four-horse spill in the fourth race at Northlands Park on Friday night. Welch was aboard Judicial Committee who broke down just as he was going to the lead in the upper stretch. None of the other riders involved were injured. Judicial Committee suffered a broken leg and was euthanized. "It doesn't look good," said Bob Fowlis, Welch's agent. "It looks like he fractured his elbow and broke his collar bone." Welch had 42 wins at the meet.

ELMONT, N.Y. − For a little over two minutes, owner-trainer Naipaul Chatterpaul was floating on a cloud. Mission Approved, whom he claimed in his previous start, was on the verge of an upset in the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park.

A 53-1 outsider, Mission Approved went right to the front, and for most of the 1 3/8 miles, no one was gaining. Only a big late run from Gio Ponti, a multiple Eclipse Award winner, denied Mission Approved the improbable win by a neck.

Chatterpaul said it was a thrill to come that close in his first Grade 1 race.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – The record-setting season Tom Durant has had at the Lone Star Park meet that closes Sunday has literally been years in the making. Most of his winners have been by stallions he stands and were raised at his farm in Granbury, Texas.

Durant, who a month ago broke Lone Star’s record for owner wins in a meet, had won 36 races at the track through Thursday night, 25 more than second-leading owner End Zone Athletics.

Crowded House will race on his third continent this year in the Grade 1, $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar next Saturday in an effort to revive a once-promising career.

Crowded House is winless in six starts this year, three in Dubai and three in England, and will make his American debut in the Eddie Read, which is run over 1 1/8 miles on turf. Owner Paul Reddam acknowledged that moving Crowded House to the United States is a bit of a gamble.

“I don’t know what to expect,” he said.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill − If Arlington Park is known for anything, it is known for a wide, lush turf course, the envy of many a racetrack. But the Arlington lawn is getting a workout like never before this summer, and it remains to be seen how the local turf holds up under unprecedented use in 2010.

MIAMI – Sweet Repent, who was given a much-deserved vacation after capping off a five-race win streak with an easy victory in the Sunshine Millions Distaff on Jan. 30, will make her return here on Saturday in the $65,000 Nancy’s Glitter Handicap.

Sweet Repent rose from the allowance ranks to the top of the local filly and mare division last winter, winning four stakes during her skein, including the Grade 3 Stage Door Betty Handicap in her 3-year-old finale here on Dec. 26.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. − In an effort to preserve field size, Hollywood Park may run four days a week during its autumn meeting later this year, track president Jack Liebau said Friday.

Hollywood Park has run a mix of four- and five-day weeks during the current summer meeting and primarily ran five days a week during last year’s autumn meeting.