ELMONT, N.Y. - Saturday was billed as New York Showcase Day. It turned into Ramon Dominguez Showcase Day.
Dominguez, the dominant rider on this circuit all year long, turned in another brilliant performance, winning four stakes, capped by a front-running, three-quarter-length score aboard Haynesfield in the before a crowd of 4,180 at dreary Belmont Park.
ALBANY, Calif. - Lady Railrider scored a repeat victory in Saturday's $50,600 Pacific Heights Stakes at Golden Gate Fields.
The 4-year-old Ride the Rails filly, who won the Cal Cup Matron in her previous start, won for the first time on turf, going wire-to-wire in the 1 1/16-mile race. Last year's Pacific Heights was contested on the main track.
PHOENIX - Mutak Gold showed his strong dirt form could transfer to the turf as he proved victorious in the $50,000 Walter R. Cluer Memorial Handicap Saturday at Turf Paradise.
Owned by Robert W. Morgan and trained by Dan McFarlane, the 4-year-old gelding was making just his second start on turf - he ran fourth in his other try - in the mile event for 3-year-olds and upward. Under Ry Eikleberry, the 124-pound co-highweight stalked the pace, moved up to engage for the lead into the lane between horses and edged away in the final furlong to win by three-quarters of a length.
ARCADIA, Calif. - April Pride, a minor stakes winner with a rambunctious attitude, became April Pride, the rambunctious graded stakes winner in Saturday's at Santa Anita.
A filly who has tested trainer Jim Cassidy's patience in the last year was up to her antics in the winner's circle, becoming fractious just after the winner's circle photo was taken when jockey Garrett Gomez jumped off.
"She's tough," Cassidy said. "She's got a mind of her own."
LAUREL, Md. - Vineyard Haven doesn't mind running in the mud. He just doesn't like it getting splashed in his face.
Racing in a heavy rain over a sloppy, sealed track at Laurel Park on Saturday afternoon, Vineyard Haven looked like a beaten horse when he dropped back to sixth with a quarter-mile remaining in the Grade 1 . But when the rail opened up - allowing jockey Alan Garcia to put Vineyard Haven in a spot where the mud splashback was minimal - the 3-year-old colt closed strongly to earn the third Grade 1 victory in his seven-race career.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With Raven Run winner Satans Quick Chick ($48.80) foremost among them, a slew of long-priced Saturday winners at Keeneland led to a pick 6 carryover of $254,602 for Sunday.
Striking Dancer ($10.40) easily won the 10th and last race under Robby Albarado, capping some big multi-race mutuels, most notably the late pick 4 (races 7-10), which paid $3,036.75 for a 50-cent ticket. Five out of 6 in the $2 pick 6 paid $24,623.
The Sunday pick 6 goes on races 4-9, when first post is 1:05 ET.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - In the hours leading up to the at Keeneland, trainer Eric Reed said he and owner Jerry Jamgotchian had tried in vain to scratch Satans Quick Chick from the Grade 2 race.
So chief steward John Veitch could only chuckle after Satans Quick Chick, giving jockey Leandro Goncalves the richest winner of his career, rallied up the rail at 23-1 to lead a parade of huge longshots Saturday in the 11th running of the $300,000 Raven Run.
"We thought the race came up a little too tough, but the stewards wouldn't let us out," said an elated Reed.
Lawyer Daggett upset a field of 10 Indiana-bred and -sired 2-year-olds in the $70,000 Crown Ambassador at Hoosier Park Saturday afternoon.
Jockey Nelson Arroyo kept the gelding just off the early pace and to the outside of the rest of the field to the turn. Lawyer Daggett rallied into the stretch and quickly drew clear by a length and a half at the eighth pole. The Stephen Dunn trainee extended his lead through the final furlong, winning by six lengths.
Motown Boy finished second, a length in front of Lord Avie Jones in third.
