INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After months of high expectations, Fluke gave a career-best performance in Friday's Grade 1 Citation Handicap at Hollywood Park, confirming his status as a turf miler to follow in 2010.
Since winning his second start in the United States last March, in a one-mile optional claimer on turf at Santa Anita, the Brazilian-bred Fluke seemed like a 4-year-old colt who would play a role in major stakes.
Pleasant Storm and Shotgun Gulch are both being considered for 3-year-old stakes at Oaklawn this coming year following their sharp stakes wins last weekend at Remington Park.
Pleasant Storm remained undefeated in two starts when he closed from 10th to win the $60,000 Oklahoma Classics Juvenile on Nov. 22. He covered six furlongs in 1:10.80, one start after winning a maiden special weight at the same trip Oct. 17. Both races were at a distance less than optimum for Pleasant Storm.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - At the Disco led all the way Friday night, beating Dubai Gold by two lengths in the $80,000 Alysheba Stakes at the Meadowlands.
The 1 1/16-mile Alysheba was the final stakes of the meet that concludes Dec. 5.
It was also the final race of season for At the Disco ($23.60), who got his third win this year - all in stakes.
The previous two came against New Jersey-breds at Monmouth Park in the Bernie Dowd and Lincroft handicaps.
A shorter distance and a drop into restricted company helped Listen In capture her first career stakes win in Friday night's $75,000 Blue Mountain Stakes at Penn National.
Shortening up to six furlongs after an unsuccessful experiment going long, Listen In ($5.60) also got some class relief by facing Pennsylvania-bred 2-year-old fillies for he first time. Ridden by Joe Rocco Jr. for trainer Joe Kasperski, Listen In stalked the pace set by Red Bandera, took command in the stretch drive, and scored by four lengths while completing the distance on a track rated good in 1:12.46.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Fluke's win in Friday's at Hollywood Park was a milestone that trainer Humberto Ascanio would have gladly postponed indefinitely.
The Grade 1 race was Ascanio's first stakes win since the death of his boss, Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, from a lengthy illness on Nov. 16. Ascanio has taken over Frankel's 22-horse stable at Hollywood Park, and Fluke and Proudinsky, who finished fourth in the Citation, were the stable's first stakes starters since then.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Three-year-olds got the best of their elders in dramatic fashion Friday when Blame, ridden by Jamie Theriot, beat Misremembered by a neck in the 135th running of the at Churchill Downs.
Blame, bred and owned by Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm, returned $10.80 as second choice after finishing the 1 1/8-mile race in 1:49.39. Misremembered and fourth-place finisher Giant Oak were the only other 3-year-olds in the field.
The stands aren't full, but the fields are. That's the bad news/good news situation that will open four months of winter racing at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., where the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural anchors a nine-race opening-day card Sunday.
Millionaire Bold Chieftain scored his third straight stakes victory in the at Golden Gate Fields on Friday. The three-length win in the 1 1/16-mile stakes was his first win over the Golden Gate Tapeta surface.
Bold Chieftain was four wide on the first turn before being taking back a bit by jockey Russell Baze, who angled him in to save ground. He was in cruise control all the way, easily wearing down pacesetting Yacht Spotter and going on to victory over Cigar Man, with Pearl Fisher third another two lengths back in third.
Bold Chieftain finished in 1:43.81 and paid $3.
