Tempting Dash broke his own track record Saturday night at Lone Star Park, when he romped by 2 3/4 lengths in the Grade 1, $1.1 million Texas Classic Futurity for Quarter Horses. The race was the richest stakes run this year in Texas.
Tempting Dash ($2.80) covered 400 yards in 19.20 seconds. He had set the previous mark of 19.37 seconds on Oct. 24, when he won the Grade 1 Dash for Cash Futurity in 19.37 seconds. Tempting Dash led wire to wire in the Texas Classic Futurity.
The slimmest of margins decided the richest race of the year at Evangeline Downs on Saturday night, when Game Show Special edged Bounce Bye by a nose in the $540,656 LQHBA Breeders Futurity. The race was a restricted Grade 1 for 2-year-old Quarter Horses bred in Louisiana.
Game Show Special ($9.20) closed well to win the 400-yard race in 20.15 seconds on a track rated fast Saturday.
Perhaps getting away from Son of a Bear was all I Got a Answer needed.
After finishing behind Son of a Bear in three consecutive races, including a 19-length drubbing in a division of the Tri-State Futurity three weeks earlier, I Got a Answer didn't have to face his nemesis in Saturday night's $62,537 West Virginia Futurity at Charles Town.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Resentless ($3.50) went right to the front and never looked back en route to notching her first stakes Sunday at Woodbine in the $150,400 Ontario Lassie.
Chantal Sutherland rode Resentless, who set slow fractions in the route for Ontario-bred 2-year-old fillies before drawing off in the stretch. She prevailed by 5 1/4 lengths over Tee Game, in a time of 1:43.98 for 1 1/16 miles. Moment of Majesty finished another neck back in third in the six-horse field. All Star Heart was a vet scratch at the gate.
Coy Cat surged to the lead with an outside rush and edged away down the stretch to defeat her Paul McGee-trained stablemate, School Girl, in the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural, the highlight of a nine-race card that kicked off the holiday meet Sunday at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
With Larry Sterling Jr. riding for the Jay Em Ess Stable, Coy Cat paid $30.60 after finishing six furlongs in 1:10.44 over Polytrack. School Girl, a 20-1 shot under Jon Court, was three-quarters of a length behind the winner and another half-length before She's Extreme.
Runnning Brook Gal, who is the nation's top-ranked 2-year-old Quarter Horse, closed out her big year with a half-length win over First Prize Leesa in the Grade 1, $305,000 Southwest Juvenile Championship at Zia Park on Sunday.
Runnning Brook Gal ($4.20) broke well in the Southwest Juvenile and was prominent throughout as she covered 440 yards in 21.23 seconds. Paul Jones trains the filly for A&C Racing and Roping. She was ridden by Ramon Sanchez.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jockey Emile Ramsammy scored career win No. 2,000 aboard Perfect Student in Sunday's eighth race at Woodbine.
Ramsammy, who will turn 47 on Dec. 11, is a two-time Sovereign Award winner as Canada's top rider. His career highlights include victories in the Queen's Plate aboard Victor Cooley (1996) and Edenwold (2006).
Ramsammy is a native of Trinidad, which is where he won his first race in 1980.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A winning streak that began in a maiden race for statebreds at Del Mar in August shows no sign of ending for The Usual Q.T.
Sunday, the 3-year-old gelding won his third consecutive stakes, and most prestigious race to date, in the $300,000 Hollywood Derby at Hollywood Park.
Ridden by Victor Espinoza, The Usual Q.T. ($11.40) had an ideal trip in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. The Usual Q.T. stalked pacesetter Straight Story to early stretch, took the lead passing the eighth pole, and won by 1 1/2 lengths over 5-2 favorite Battle of Hastings.
When Lonesome Creek won the ATBA Sales Stakes at Turf Paradise on last month at 12-1, beating 1-5 favorite Got an Itch back into second, it was surely viewed as a surprise. That can't really be the reaction now as Lonesome Creek made it two straight over her more ballyhooed rival when she captured the $63,836 Arizona Breeders Futurity filly division at Turf Paradise on Saturday.
Twenty minutes later, Pinal validated his 12 3/4-length win in the trial for this, easily taking the $67,710 colt-and-gelding division.
Friesan Fire will make his first start since the Preakness Stakes, and first for trainer Steve Asmussen, in a high-level optional claiming race on Thursday at Fair Grounds.
Friesan Fire was one of six horses entered in a mile-and-40-yard allowance race also open to $100,000 claimers. The race also includes Fair Grounds-loving Good and Lucky, a stakes winner over the main track. But Friesan Fire figures to be an odds-on favorite under Shaun Bridgmohan.
