ALBANY, Calif. - Golden Gate Fields winds up its fall meeting this week with the $75,000 Gold Rush Stakes on Saturday.
The one-mile stakes for 2-year-olds is a perfect send-off for the fall meet and will serve as a stepping-stone to the $100,000 California Derby at 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 17 and the Grade 3, $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 14.
Six runners are confirmed for the race, and four others are considering it.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The two-race winning streak that Chocolate Candy has compiled this fall has left owner Jenny Craig and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer anxious for 2009.
The 2-year-old colt won his stakes debut in the Real Quiet Stakes at Hollywood Park on Nov. 8 and makes his graded stakes debut in the $750,000 CashCall Futurity on Saturday, a Grade 1 at 1 1/16 miles.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Star Nicholas was quicker coming off the turn than Partywithlarryz, and that proved the difference on Sunday in the $77,275 On Trust Handicap for California-breds at Hollywood Park.
Star Nicholas ($7.60), under jockey Michael Baze, got the jump on Partywithlarryz a quarter-mile out, then held on to win by a half-length in 1:27.46 for 7 1/2 furlongs on Cushion Track. Star Nicholas then had to withstand a stewards' inquiry into the stretch run; the stewards let the result stand.
Peppers Pride is still perfect.
She won what was likely the final start of her career with style on Sunday, when she pulled away by 5 3/4 lengths in the $125,000 New Mexico State Racing Commission Handicap at Sunland Park. With the victory, Peppers Pride remained undefeated in 19 starts, and pushed her earnings past $1 million.
"We're just nearly positive we're going to [retire her]," Joe Allen, who bred and owns Peppers Pride, said shortly after the win on Sunday. "It's been pretty hectic the last couple of days. We will know what our definite plans are tomorrow."
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - Jess You and I, a 15-1 outsider, pulled an upset and set a track record in Saturday's $750,000 Champion of Champions for older Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos.
Jess You and I ($32.40) ran 440 yards in 20.94 seconds, becoming the first horse in track history to break the 21-second mark. The race was timed from a standing start. Ridden by Alejandro Luna, Jess You and I broke the previous record of 21.13 seconds set by the filly Blues Girl Too in the 2007 Champion of Champions.
Red Rock Creek helped his trainer, Steve Asmussen, and his rider, Luis Quinonez, close out highly successful Remington Park meets on Sunday, when he rallied from next to last to win the $75,000 Governor's Cup. The mile and a sixteenth race was one of three stakes on the final card of a meet in which Asmussen and Quinonez were clear title winners.
Borrowing Base was somewhat of a buzz horse when she ran in last month's Montauk Handicap, but a pedestrian pace and a sloppy track were her undoing as she finished sixth at 5-1 in the stakes restricted to New York-bred fillies and mares.
Not wanting her campaign to end on that note, trainer Pat Quick decided to delay a scheduled break for the mare and wheeled her back on two weeks' rest in Sunday's $82,100 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct.
Good move.
ALBANY, Calif. - Will O Way ($2.80), heavily favored after chasing likely Eclipse winner Stardom Bound in a pair of Grade 1 races, captured the $75,000 Corte Madera Stakes on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields in the easiest of fashions.
"What a nice horse," winning jockey Russell Baze said after the 5 1/2-length victory in the one-mile race for 2-year-old fillies. The winning time was 1:37.90.
"I had a lot of horse the whole way, and I had a lot of horse left," Baze said. "She did it very easy. She's kinda tiny, but she feels like a big horse when she starts running."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The surprise move that took several fillies out of contention on the backstretch of Saturday's $438,500 Hollywood Starlet Stakes made the outing even easier for pacesetter Laragh.
When contenders Dave's Revenge and Pamona Ball and the outsider Black Magic Mama made early wide moves on the backstretch, jockey Edgar Prado kept Laragh on the rail and in a comfortable stride. The result was a milestone win for Laragh, her first in a Grade 1 race.
NEW ORLEANS - Wildrally closed from second-to-last to first, going five wide to prevail by a neck in the $100,000 Turf Stakes, one of seven Thoroughbred stakes on Saturday's Louisiana Champions Day card at Fair Grounds.
Given a skillful ride by Brian Hernandez Jr., Wildrally sat back off a slow pace on a soft turf course before beginning his move in the second turn. Hernandez took him five wide in the stretch, finding running room and perhaps the best part of the course.
