Mr Queens Mystery drove to a half-length win over Mighty Corona in the $1,154,802 Texas Classic Futurity for Quarter Horses at Lone Star Park on Saturday night. The race was the richest run this year in Texas.
Mr Queens Mystery ($13) covered the 400 yards for 2-year-olds in 19.61 seconds. Rodrigo Vallejo rode the winner for Azoom LP and trainer Robert Touchet. For the win, Mr Queens Mystery earned $513,888.
The Texas Classic, which is a Grade 1, closed out the Quarter Horse meet at Lone Star.
Willie Martinez enjoyed a successful homecoming at his old stomping grounds when guiding Afleet Angel, the lone supplementary nomination in the field, to a 1 3/4-length upset in the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural as Turfway Park opened its holiday meet Sunday in Florence, Ky.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - As good as he was on dirt, Court Vision is even better on turf. He turned in the best performance of his career on Sunday, when he rallied from last to first, into the teeth of a slow pace, to capture the Grade 1, $500,000 Hollywood Derby, the final stakes race of the turf festival at Hollywood Park.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Precious Kitten led by 1 1/2 lengths in the stretch of Sunday's $500,000 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park. She needed a bigger lead.
Cocoa Beach, second to the unbeaten Zenyatta in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Santa Anita on Oct. 24, rallied from sixth in the final quarter-mile to win the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes by three-quarters of a length over Precious Kitten. Visit finished third in the field of eight fillies and mares.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - A gate malfunction at Aqueduct that pushed back the start of the featured Montauk Handicap by 31 minutes also forced the track to cancel the ninth race on the program.
New York Racing Association officials deemed it too dark to run the last race, which had its post time pushed back until after 4:30 p.m. Rainy conditions made it very dark earlier than normal Sunday.
Post time for ninth was originally listed at 4:12, but the eighth race, the Montauk, wasn't run until 4:15 because of the gate problem.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - California Flag avenged a 10th-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Oct. 25 with a front-running win in Saturday's $150,000 Hollywood Turf Express.
The Grade 3 Turf Express was California Flag's second stakes win of the fall. He won the Grade 3 Morvich Handicap on the Santa Anita hillside turf course on Sept. 24.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Chantal Sutherland, wintering in Southern California for the second straight year, earned her first graded stakes win on this circuit when she guided Mr. Rod to a front-running victory in the Grade 3, $109,300 Generous Stakes for 2-year-olds on Saturday at Hollywood Park.
Parabola ($36.80) edged by Mean Green in deep stretch to capture the $127,400 Kingarvie Stakes at Woodbine.
The favored Shut It Down and Wildcat Fashion vied through fractions of 24.58 and 48.53 seconds in the 1 1/16-mile race for Ontario-sired 2-year-olds. Parabola raced near the back of the pack until the quarter pole under Justin Stein, who angled him wide for the drive.
Parabola rallied on his left lead in the stretch to prevail by a half-length over Mean Green in 1:45.32. Wildcat Fashion wound up third, and Shut It Down faded to ninth in the 11-horse field.
Jockey Charles Forrest snapped a season-long slump at Laurel Park when he guided Now It Begins to a wire-to-wire victory in the $50,000 Squan Song Stakes.
It was Forrest's first win in 68 mounts this year at Laurel and capped a big week for trainer Mike Trombetta, who won with 6 of the 10 horses he saddled at Laurel, including allowance races with multiple stakes winners Cave's Valley and Eternal Star
