LOUISVILLE, Ky. - One was very easy, the other very tough. In sweeping the twin Grade 2 stakes Saturday at Churchill Downs, jockey Calvin Borel urged Beethoven to win a three-horse photo in the Kentucky Jockey Club an hour after riding Rachel Alexandra to a romp in the Golden Rod.
By winning both closing-day features, Borel took three of the four Grade 2 stakes that ended the 26-day meet. He also won the Falls City Handicap on Thursday aboard Miss Isella.
MIAMI - Snow Cone, among the top 3-year-old turf horses here last season with trainer Marty Wolfson, was back on the track Saturday morning but this time sporting the saddle towel of trainer Joe Orseno.
Snow Cone worked an easy half-mile over the main track in 1:03.40 here Saturday in preparation for her appearance in next Saturday's Grade 3 My Charmer Stakes.
ALBANY, Calif. - Three-year-olds dominated the scratch-marred $73,500 Forty Niner Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on Friday with Dakota Phone ($6.20), last to the quarter pole, roaring past pacesetting Gallon in the lane to win.
Dakota Phone did not get away well as he had his head turned as the gate opened for the 1 1/16-mile race. Three scratches left a field of four, and Dakota Phone ran fourth and last early. He was always in a good stalking position as jockey Frank Alvarado was content to sit back until the field turned for home before unleashing a strong kick.
Bob Elliston has never been one to cry poor or cry wolf. But when Maryland voters recently drew a major step closer to providing relief for their racing industry through alternative gaming, Elliston, the president of Turfway Park, couldn't help feeling like the walls of doom were closing in even tighter.
INGLEWOOD, Calif.-Hyperbaric was held out of the Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita last month in favor of Friday's $400,000 Citation Handicap at Hollywood Park. The schedule worked to perfection when the 5-year-old gelding led throughout the Citation, recording the first Grade 1 victory of his career.
The hype about Habaya was correct.
Friday at Hollywood Park, Habaya won her first stakes in the $113,800 Miesque Stakes for 2-year-old fillies.
Ridden by Richard Migliore, Habaya closed from fifth on the backstretch to win the Grade 3 race by three-quarters of a length over Internallyflawless, who rallied through the final furlong. Eloquently, making her U.S. debut, finished a nose behind for third in the field of 12, closing well on the rail.
Habaya ($6.80) ran a mile on turf in 1:37.07. It was only in the final furlong that she drew away from her rivals.
Classic Campaign, racing on dirt for the first time in four years, handled a sloppy track and came home first as the longest shot in the Buddy Diliberto Memorial Handicap at the Fair Grounds.
Brian Hernandez Jr., riding in place of Patrick Valenzuela, guided the Bill Mott-trained Classic Campaign from last to first, taking over in the stretch to prevail by 1 1/2 lengths over the favored Wise River.
The race, originally scheduled for dirt, was reduced to a field of four as three horses scratched when it was moved to the main track.
Trainer Joe Petalino has always thought well of Kick On, who will seek his fifth straight win next Friday night when he starts in the Grade 3, $750,000 Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs. The colt is one of four stakes-winning 2-year-olds from Remington Park targeting weekend stakes at Delta. The fillies My Spanx, Phoenician Moon, and Seacrettina have all been pre-entered in the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Princess.
NEW ORLEANS - After losing nearly a year to a freak accident, jockey E.J. Perrodin is back riding horses at Fair Grounds and closing in on his 3,000th career victory.
On Nov. 23, 2007, Perrodin, then 50 years old, was warming up No No Bad Kitty on the clubhouse turn at Fair Grounds when she reared back and fell, crushing Perrodin.
With his pelvis broken and his liver bleeding, Perrodin spent a week in a New Orleans hospital before going back to Shreveport to be cared for by his wife.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Einstein looked heavily favored Commentator in the eye turning for home and went on to prove clearly superior Friday under Julien Leparoux in a dramatic 134th running of the Grade 2 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.
With the normally reserved Leparoux waving his whip in exuberance passing under the finish, Einstein won a race in which it was questionable whether he would even get to run.