ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Gail Cox's decision to switch Simply Splendid to the turf here at Woodbine this spring has proven to be a stroke of genius.
Simply Splendid, a Kentucky-bred 5-year-old, completed a one-mile turf double with her half-length score under jockey Chantal Sutherland in last Saturday's Grade 2, $330,400 Nassau for fillies and mares.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Switch is bound for turf stakes this summer, and Blind Luck will run in major stakes in New York after those fillies ran one-two in Sunday's Grade 2 Hollywood Oaks at Hollywood Park.
Switch won her first stakes in the $150,000 Hollywood Oaks, holding off a furious rally from Blind Luck to win by 1 1/4 lengths. Blind Luck was the 1-2 favorite in the Hollywood Oaks, and was making her first start since a win in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on April 30.
Ammunition and King Cobra, the two most impressive juvenile winners at the Golden Gate meet, will match up in the $50,000 Lost in the Fog Stakes at five furlongs on Saturday. Minutesandtouches, third to Ammunition in what is considered the best 2-year-old race run yet, will also run.
Trainer Terry Knight expects Minutesandtouches to run better at five furlongs than the 4 1/2 of his last race and is waiting for distances to stretch out even more.
The first local star of the next generation will be crowned in Saturday's Lost in the Fog Stakes at Golden Gate Fields. But fans attending Golden Gate on Belmont Day also got to see a star in the making, as the 3-year-old Googles McCoy improved his record to 2 for 2 with a 5 1/2-length allowance victory that made his 2-5 odds look like an overlay.
"The horse has done nothing wrong," said trainer Steve Sherman. "He still has more in the tank."
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Bent Attorney took command in the stretch and drew off to a 3 3/4-length win in the at Fort Erie on Sunday. Scheduled for the turf, the five-furlong event for Ontario-sired fillies and mares was moved to the dirt after heavy rains Saturday night.
Bent Attorney ($3.80), a 6-year-old mare by Crown Attorney, was fifth in last year's Rainbow Connection, and trainer Don MacRae blamed her performance that day on the soft turf.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After narrow losses in three graded stakes in Southern California earlier this year, Switch finally reached the winner's circle in an important race in Sunday's $150,000 Hollywood Oaks at Hollywood Park, and in doing so upset division leader Blind Luck.
Switch ($7.40) held off a late run from Blind Luck to win the by 1 1/4 lengths for her first graded stakes win. Blind Luck, the 1-2 favorite, was making her first start since winning the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on April 30 and was after her fourth stakes win of the year.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Zenyatta, the undefeated two-time champion, will carry 129 pounds in the $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park next Sunday.
Zenyatta has been weighted nine pounds above St Trinians, winner of the Grade 2 Santa Maria Handicap at Santa Anita in February. There are only two other probable starters for the Grade 1 Vanity, which is run over 1 1/8 miles on the main track. Will O Way has been assigned 114 pounds, two more than Miss Silver Brook.