BALTIMORE - Heart Ashley can take the heat. On a warm afternoon Friday at Pimlico, she set torrid fractions, turned back her early pace rivals, and doggedly held on to capture the Grade 3, $100,000 Miss Preakness Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
She was tiring late, but Heart Ashley just did last to win the six-furlong race by a head over Cinderella's Wish, with Trophy Collector a distant third. Heart Ashley was timed in 1:10.79 on the fast main track.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Superior Storm, the Louisiana-bred star who upset Proud Spell in the champion's comeback race in March, is bringing her show to Lone Star Park. Trainer Rick Jackson said Friday that Superior Storm is being pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff Handicap on May 25, Memorial Day.
The one-mile turf race for fillies and mares is one of six stakes on the Lone Star Million Day program. The main event is the Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Park Handicap.
All Giving ($2.80) kept a parade of chalk in step Friday at Pimlico, roaring past pacesetting What Time It Is in midstretch and bounding clear to a one-length victory in the $50,000 Skipat Stakes for fillies and mares.
Fancy Diamond rallied to be second by a head over Mikeslittlegirl. What Time It Is faded to fourth, followed by Mysterious Bandit. La Chica Rica scratched after winning the Hancock County Handicap on Tuesday night at Mountaineer.
All Giving, a 5-year-old Maryland-bred daughter of Allen's Prospect, won for the 11th time in 31 career starts.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The winners of both stakes races at Hastings last weekend, What R the Odds and Almost Time, are likely headed out of town for their next start. Neither horse is eligible for the next stakes races for 3-year-olds at Hastings, the CTHS Sales Stakes on June 13 for fillies and June 14 for colts and geldings.
Trainer Mel Snow said that What R the Odds will be pointed to the $50,000 Federal Way Handicap on May 24 at Emerald Downs.
Trainer Dino Condilenios was still weighing his options for Almost Time.
MIAMI - Turf stakes for 3-year-olds are few and far between throughout the year in south Florida, and members of the division could lose a rare opportunity to get on the grass with Sunday's $55,000 Lord Juban Stakes a good bet to be washed over to the main track.
Gulfstream Park carded only two turf races for 3-year-olds on its 2009 stakes schedule, the most recent being the Grade 3 Palm Beach on March 14, and there isn't a scheduled grass stakes for the division on the Calder calendar until the Needles on Sept. 26.
BALTIMORE - Eight months was not long enough for Smart and Fancy. Eight months and almost five furlongs, now that was just right. In her first start since October, Smart and Fancy needed the length of the stretch to wear down three dogged rivals and take the $50,000 The Very One Stakes for female turf sprinters on Friday at Pimlico.
BALTIMORE - Trainer Bret Calhoun has a problem - the kind of problem you'd like to have. Chamberlain Bridge won the Aegon Turf Sprint during Derby Week at Churchill Downs, and on Friday at Pimlico, Mr. Nightlinger was at least as impressive capturing the $98,500 Jim McKay Turf Sprint Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths.
"I've got to find a way to keep those two apart," Calhoun said after the McKay.
The New York Racing Association on Thursday held a six-hour hearing with trainer Jeff Mullins over a security-barn violation that occurred at Aqueduct in April, but it adjourned without any action being taken. It is expected that further testimony from additional witnesses will be needed before NYRA decides what, if any, penalties will be issued.
AUBURN, Wash. - There's business being conducted at the east end of Barn 2 on the Emerald Downs backside, but it's not exactly business as usual. Veteran trainer Craig Roberts has been absent since suffering a stroke more than four months ago. The official program still reads "Craig Roberts, trainer," but assistant trainer Martin Pimentel is running things while Roberts undergoes an arduous rehabilitation program at a nursing facility in Seattle.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Casse sent out back-to-back winners of the 1 1/8 mile Woodbine Oaks, with Kimchi prevailing in the 2006 running and Sealy Hill in 2007. On Sunday, Casse will send out his main hopeful for this year's June 7 Woodbine Oaks, with Tasty Temptation scheduled to face 10 rivals, including stablemate Closing Speed in the 1 1/16-mile La Lorgnette.
The La Lorgnette, an open race for 3-year-old fillies, previously was run in September but has traded places on the stakes calendar with the Grade 3 Selene, another open 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies.
