TAMPA, Fla. Favored Fierce Wind came back late to outfinish a game Fearless Vision and post a neck victory in the $65,000 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday.
Under a strong ride by Daniel Centeno, Fierce Wind bid outside on the second turn after being parked wide by Fearless Vision. Fierce Wind continued to do battle with that one through a long drive before surging in deep stretch to get up in the shadow of the wire.
ARCADIA, Calif. Sweet August Moon wins the Honest Lady at Santa Anita. Trainer Brian Koriner has big plans for her this year.P
From trainer Brian Koriner's perspective, Sweet August Moon launched her career by winning Saturday's $100,000 Honest Lady Stakes at Santa Anita.
"I think we're just getting started," he said. "I think she can be worth a lot of money and travel around the country for one-turn stakes."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The connections of I Want Revenge had a strong suspicion their horse would be better on dirt than he had been on the synthetic tracks of Southern California.
Their suspicions were confirmed in a major way Saturday as I Want Revenge - making his dirt debut - relished Aqueduct's inner track as he dominated the Grade 3, $250,000 Gotham Stakes by 8 1/2 lengths and announced himself a major contender for this year's Kentucky Derby.
STICKNEY, Ill. - The 17-year-old apprentice rider Dusty Shepherd won four races during all of 2008. Two races into the Hawthorne spring meet, and Shepherd already had gotten halfway to that total.
Shepherd dead-heated for first in Friday's meet-opening race, then won the second race outright. Not just that, but his agent, Jimmy Ernesto, has lined up plenty of business to keep Shepherd busy, at least during this softer early phase of the Chicago racing season.
The Fair Grounds grass course, that notorious swallower of early-speed horses, lost its teeth on Saturday. A horse went wire to wire going two turns early on the card, and in the $60,000 Allen Lacombe Stakes, John Jacinto walked the dog with 22-1 shot Gold Wonder, backing up the pace and scoring by three-quarters of a length.
Gold Wonder has improved throughout the Fair Grounds meet for trainer Michelle Lovell. Most recently, he set the pace and finished fourth behind strong allowance competition on Feb. 20, but in the Lacombe, no one could catch him.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - King Leatherbury is a man of his word.
Earlier this week, the legendary Maryland-based trainer said Ah Day was ready to fire off a 216-day layoff and that he would give apprentice jockey Sheldon Russell his first stakes win in the Grade 3 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct.
Giant Oak, fully recovered from a mouth injury that cost him a work on Feb. 28, tuned up for his start in the Louisiana Derby with a strong five-furlong drill on Saturday morning at Fair Grounds. Giant Oak, a wide second to Beethoven in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in his final start at 2, and a troubled fifth in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds in his 3-year-old debut, was timed in 1:00.80 for five furlongs, the second-fastest among 36 works at the distance Saturday.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Trainer Benny R. Feliciano was granted just five stalls for the Tampa Bay Downs meeting but he has made the most of his opportunities. When Feliciano, a former jockey, sent out Richie London to win the fourth race on Friday, it gave him seven winners from just 18 starts for a winning percentage of 38.
Feliciano was quick to give his son, the jockey Ricardo Feliciano, a lot of the credit. Ricardo rides most of his dad's horses.
Snug dueled throughout but still had enough left to win the the $75,000 Gold Cup on Friday night at Delta Downs. Snug won by a neck over a fast-closing Tortuga Straits, with Costa Rising, the 1-2 favorite, seven and a quarter lengths back in fifth.
Snug ($11.60) dueled with Classy Delights through fractions of 22.92 seconds for the opening quarter, 46.88 for the half-mile and 1:13.09 for six furlongs. He went on to cover the seven furlongs, which was run around two turns, in 1:26.59.
A stewards' hearing for trainer Steve Asmussen concerning a horse in his care who tested positive for lidocaine has been reset for May 12, more than a year after the filly in question, Timber Trick, won a maiden special weight race at Lone Star Park, on May 10, 2008.
Jean Cook, a spokesperson for the Texas Racing Commission, said the hearing would be held at Lone Star.