Race 3, first leg

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Cloudy's Knight surged to victory Thursday over favored Winchester in the , giving jockey Rosemary Homeister Jr. her first-ever win at Keeneland while further enhancing the reputation of Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard.

Sheppard said afterward that he will not send Cloudy's Knight, the 9-year-old former Canadian champion, to Santa Anita for the Nov. 7 Breeders' Cup Marathon, as he had briefly contemplated approaching the race. "It might be a little greedy," said a smiling Sheppard, citing several reasons not to go, including expense and timing.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It was a long time coming, but Operation Red Dawn finally became a graded stakes winner Thursday, running past pacesetting Lemon Cream Pie at the sixteenth pole and drawing clear to a 1 1/2-length victory in the at Belmont Park.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trick of the North earned the winter off with his upset win over Teide in the Grade 3, $109,214 Premiers last Sunday at Hastings. An 8-year-old gelding, Trick of the North was making his 50th start and it turned out to be the best race of his career.

Actually, this has been the most productive season for Trick of the North. Six of his 13 wins came this year, and his win in the Premiers was the first time he had won a stakes. The $66,911 he earned for the Aurora Stables brought his earnings to $406,066.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Bullsbay is one workout from a trip to California for the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 7, trainer Graham Motion said Thursday.

The prospect for a cross-country excursion seemed grim in early September.

Bullsbay finished third behind Rachel Alexandra in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga on Sept. 6 and emerged from the race with a sore foot. Motion said Bullsbay was found to have a piece of metal lodged in the frog of the hoof.

ELMONT, N.Y. - With the forecast calling for another wet Saturday, the New York Racing Association on Thursday moved two of the seven scheduled stakes for that day's card at Belmont Park to Sunday. The Ticonderoga and Mohawk, both scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on turf, will be run on Sunday's closing-day card.

MIAMI - The graded stakes winner Jet Propulsion went nearly nine months between victories before rallying to win a money allowance race here on Oct. 10. On Saturday, he will try to come back in just two weeks and do it again when he takes on similar opposition going 1 1/16 miles on the grass in a $29,500 allowance.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Robby Albarado should look nice and pretty again by the time the Breeders' Cup rolls around Nov. 6-7. In the meantime, the 36-year-old jockey is sporting one heck of a shiner, the result of what he considers a lucky break.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Indian Apple Is was involved in one of the more controversial incidents at this year's meeting when she led throughout a first-level allowance on Aug. 15 but was declared a non-starter after the stewards ruled that she had broken through the gate prior to the start.

On Wednesday evening, Indian Apple Is was off to another bullet-like beginning, but this time she got to keep the money following her front-running score in the $111,500 Ruling Angel Stakes.

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