Glorious Smile, unable to beat maiden claimers in her first two career starts, picked the right time to deliver a breakthrough performance.
Sent to the lead for the first time in her career by jockey Jose Flores, Glorious Smile ($38.20) sped to a 2 3/4-length victory over even-money favorite Sky Haven in Thursday night's $75,000 Blue Mountain Juvenile for 2-year-old Pennsylvania-bred fillies at Penn National.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sunday's Jammed Lovely Stakes will have significance beyond the immediate for Ginger Brew.
The $150,000 Jammed Lovely, a seven-furlong race for Ontario-foaled 3-year-old fillies, will be the third start in Canada this year for Ginger Brew, which just happens to be the minimum required for consideration in Sovereign Award voting.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A two-day pick six carryover of $232,349, the largest of the Hollywood Park fall meeting, will be the focus on Friday evening's eight-race program.
An upset win by Majestic Diamond ($67) in Thursday's seventh race and a loss by 7-5 favorite Flew First Class in the last race assured the carryover.
Friday's program begins at 7:05 p.m. Pacific; the pick six races are the third through eighth races.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Midshipman, the winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, was recently sent from California to Kentucky to begin a quarantine process that will lead to him being shipped to Dubai this winter, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Midshipman was acquired earlier this year by Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai when he purchased most of the assets of Stonerside Stable. The colt will join Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin stable, which spends the winters in Dubai.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The German-based trainer Andreas Wohler has done a pretty good job over the years selecting which of his horses would fit in North American stakes. Horses such as Silvano, Paolini, and Simonas have finished first or second in Grade 1 events in North America, with Silvano winning the 2001 Arlington Million.
MIAMI - There may be more recognizable names on Saturday's $1.2 million Florida Million program at Calder than Frolic's Dream. But nobody in the eight statebred stakes races will be under closer scrutiny than the speedy 2-year-old filly when she goes off as the overwhelming favorite in the $150,000 Joe O'Farrell Juvenile Fillies Stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Roger Attfield has never been far from the spotlight.
But after a few relatively quiet years, Attfield has been back at center stage in 2008 and should eclipse his personal Woodbine earnings record of $4.13 million.
Heading into the final five weeks of the meet, Attfield's runners have earned $3.97 million while accounting for 12 stakes wins, giving him the lead in that category at the meeting.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Royal bloodlines never insure success on the racetrack, but when a filly such as Acoma has two graded stakes wins from her first seven starts, it's difficult not to point to her pedigree as a major factor.
Acoma (pronounced AK-uh-muh, not a-CO-ma) is by Empire Maker from a sensational female family, and trainer David Carroll, who will saddle the 3-year-old filly as one of the favorites Saturday in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs, believes class has come to the fore.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. A parade of longshots Wednesday led by 64-1 shot Blue Hill Bay resulted in a pick-six carryover of $152,918 heading into Thursdays card at Aqueduct. There was a carryover of $47,821 entering Wednesdays card after the wager went unhit Sunday.
Blue Hill Bay won the fifth race, or the second leg of the pick six, as 21-year-old Jacqueline Davis picked up her first career victory. Davis is the daughter of retired jockey Robbie Davis.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Hawthorne has gotten lucky in terms of weather, with very few turf races at this meet lost to wet conditions. But the luck might be running out this week. With a 90 percent chance of rain here Thursday night, the featured sixth race on Friday is in danger of being switched from 5 1/2 furlongs on grass to 5 1/2 on the main track.
