Bart Hone won the 100th stakes races of his training career on Saturday at Ruidoso Downs, when Pick Me Up went wire to wire in the $40,000 Aspen Cup.
Pick Me Up won by three lengths over Badgett's Royal, who also is trained by Hone.
Pick Me Up ($2.80) covered the six furlongs for 3-year-old fillies in 1:10.39. She is owned by R Legacy Racing and was ridden by Mark Villa.
ELMONT, N.Y. - With no racing at Belmont Park on Sunday, handicappers will have four days to study up for Wednesday's pick six, which will begin the day with a $930,495 carryover after the wager went unhit Saturday at Belmont Park.
A flurry of upsets Saturday capped by Drosselmeyer's three-quarter-length victory over Fly Down in the Belmont Stakes created Wednesday's mammoth carryover. Drosselmeyer's victory capped a sequence that included D' Funnybone ($4.40), Proviso ($4.20), Bribon ($7.50), Champagne d'Oro ($81) Winchester ($44.80) and Drosselmeyer ($28).
ELMONT, N.Y. - The WinStar Farm of Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt got another bookend for this year's Triple Crown on Saturday when 13-1 shot Drosselmeyer won the at Belmont Park, five weeks after WinStar won the Kentucky Derby with Super Saver.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - He did it again.
For the second consecutive graded stakes, Acclamation was allowed to set his own pace in a distance race on turf, and left the trailing pack in his wake. Last month, Acclamation pulled a 14-1 upset in the Grade 2 Jim Murray Handicap over 1 1/2 miles on turf on May 15.
Saturday, Acclamation won the over 1 1/4 miles on turf from the front at Hollywood Park, giving jockey Christian Santiago Reyes, the champion apprentice jockey of 2009, his first Grade 1 stakes win.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lady Giacamo might be headed to Del Mar later this summer after she improved her record to 3 for 3 on Saturday with a 1 3/4-length win over Fastation in the $66,090 fillies division of the Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity at Lone Star Park.
Trainer Allen Milligan said plans are to freshen Lady Giacamo and that she could return to action in August in the Grade 3, $150,000 Sorrento for 2-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar.
"We'll give her a little time off right now," he said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - For Nick Zito, great expectations brought great disappointment in Saturday's 142nd Belmont Stakes, as the Hall of Fame trainer had to settle for a second and an eighth-place finish with Fly Down and Ice Box.
Though Fly Down ran well to be second, three-quarters of a length behind Drosselmeyer, Zito was excruciatingly disappointed in Ice Box, the Kentucky Derby runner-up who finished ninth - but was moved to eighth via disqualification - in the Belmont as the 9-5 favorite.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hot Cha Cha got a terrific trip under Jimmy Graham Saturday in winning the 34th running of the at Churchill Downs, giving the filly her fourth graded stakes win.
Owned and bred by Nelson McMakin, Hot Cha Cha paid $5.20 as second choice in a field of six filly-mare turf runners.
ELMONT, N.Y. - That trainer Christophe Clement won Saturday's at Belmont Park was not a surprise. That he won it with Winchester and not Gio Ponti was.
While Gio Ponti, the 6-5 favorite, ran a remarkable race having to weave through traffic, Winchester, under Cornelio Velasquez, had a clear run on the outside and stormed down the center of Belmont Park's inner turf course to run down Gio Ponti in the final strides to win the $400,000 Manhattan by one-half length.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Cost of Freedom's win in an optional claimer at Hollywood Park on May 6 left trainer John Sadler thinking that the race was the best of the 7-year-old gelding's career. He may want to reassess that ranking after Saturday's .
