HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Big Drama and This Ones for Phil put on quite a show Saturday, battling eyeball to eyeball down the Gulfstream Park stretch and doing so in track-record time. But in the end it was the stewards who ultimately decided the $150,000 Swale, disqualifying Big Drama and awarding This Ones for Phil the victory in the Grade 2, seven-furlong stakes.
Big Drama's final time of 1:20.88 eclipsed the old record of 1:21.11 set by Exclusive Quality three years earlier.
NEW ORLEANS - Turning a sharp break into a comfortable lead, Alphadoodle wired the field in the $60,000 Happy Ticket, one of four stakes for statebreds on the last Saturday of racing at the Fair Grounds.
Breaking from the 1 hole, jockey Robby Albarado got Alphadoodle away from the gate the quickest in the field of six fillies and mares, leaving the other speed well behind. She turned back a stretch charge from odds-on favorite Coach Mike and pulled away to win by two lengths. Coach Mike edged Sax Appeal by a neck for second.
Slides Choice ($5.40) took advantage of a perfect trip to win the $50,000 Royal North on Saturday at Beulah Park.
Trained by Tim Hamm, Slides Choice was tucked in behind the dueling leaders to upper stretch, where Yankee Cruz opened up a 1 1/2-length lead. Jockey Cesar Camaque then angled Slides Choice to the outside and they wore down Yankee Cruz to prevail by three-quarters of a length. It was another 1 3/4 lengths back to S R Four Queens.
Slides Choice ran the six furlongs over a fast track in 1:12.09.
Bullsbay, the beaten favorite in last month's John Campbell Handicap, made amends by scoring a three-quarter length victory in the $50,000 Harrison Johnson Memorial Handicap on Saturday at Laurel Park.
It was the second consecutive win in the Johnson for trainer Graham Motion, who won last year's running with Arcata.
ARCADIA, Calif. Triumphant Flight fought off a sustained challenge from Charlie's Moment to win his 3-year-old debut in Saturday's $87,800 San Miguel Stakes at Santa Anita.
Triumphant Flight led by a length on the backstretch and by 1 1/2 lengths with a furlong remaining before holding on for a half-length victory. Ridden by Victor Espinoza, Triumphant Flight ($16.40) ran the six furlongs in 1:09.54 after setting early fractions of 22.44 and 45.49 seconds.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Rockhurst, a 10-year-old who is riding a four-race win streak, will be looking for his 15th win if trainer Mike Dini can find a race for him here at Tampa Bay Downs.
Dini, who claimed Rockhurst for $10,000 back in 2003 and has seen the turf sprint specialist knock out more than $300,000 since moving to his barn, sent Rockhurst to Mike Stidham's barn at Fair Grounds this winter because there were races there where he could be competitive.
The Arkansas Racing Commission on Saturday approved a 54-date race meet for Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs for 2010 that is almost identical to the current calendar. The meet is scheduled to open on Friday, Jan. 15, and run through Saturday, April 10.
Oaklawn will race on a Thursday-through-Saturday schedule for most of the meet, picking up Wednesdays for the final three weeks of the season.
California-based Well Armed made short work of the $6 million Dubai World Cup at Nad Al Sheba Saturday, going wire to wire in a breathtaking performance to win by 14 lengths while not being asked for his best in the final sixteenth of the 1 1/4-mile race.
Ridden by Aaron Gryder and trained by Eoin Harty, Well Armed broke sharply and took immediate command of the World Cup. Rated on the early lead, he opened up at will entering the long Nad Al Sheba stretch and was was never challenged thereafter. He was timed in 2:01.01.