First Down Mr Jess ($28.80) dueled for a neck win over Specially Alluring in the Grade 1, $335,200 Sam Houston Futurity for Quarter Horses at Sam Houston Race Park on Friday night.
Gaspar Garcia was aboard for Chrissema Horses and trainer Sleepy Gilbreath.
First Down Mr Jess covered the 400 yards for 2-year-olds in 19.91 seconds. For the win, he earned $134,080.
Akronism overhauled front-runner Marina Ballerina at the sixteenth pole before edging away for a one-length win in the Grade 3, $157,800 Seaway Stakes at Woodbine.
It was the second Woodbine stakes score for the Delaware-based Akronism, who took the Grade 3 Royal North Stakes on turf in her previous start. She was prominent throughout in the Seaway and covered the seven furlongs in 1:21.51 under Eurico Rosa Da Silva.
Miss Charm City stamped herself as a prime contender for next month's Maryland Million Lassie with a dominating 6 3/4-length victory in the $50,000 Gin Talking Stakes at Laurel Park.
A four-length winner at 20-1 in her career debut on Aug. 13, Miss Charm City ($7.60), under Horatio Karamanos, went after front-runner Letmeaskuaquestion after she ran the opening quarter-mile in 23.07 seconds, took command midway on the turn, and increased her advantage through the stretch. She completed 5 1/2 furlongs on a sloppy track in 1:06.87.
Delightful Kiss entered Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Turfway Park Fall Championship without having raced over a synthetic track or farther than 1 1/8 miles.
It didn't show in his performance. Unleashing an eye-catching rally under Calvin Borel on the final turn of the 1 1/2-mile stakes, Delightful Kiss ($19) swooped to the lead and maintained a comfortable advantage in the stretch to win by 1 1/4 lengths over Star Plus.
Barn 38 at Belmont Park was placed under a precautionary quarantine Saturday after a horse stabled in that barn was euthanized due to a fever that could be associated with equine herpes.
The quarantine will remain in place until the results of blood tests taken on the horse to determine the cause of death come back from a laboratory in Kentucky, most likely on Tuesday.
By BRAD FREE
POMONA, Calif. - Martin Pedroza put on a one-man show Friday at Fairplex Park, where he became the first jockey to win seven races on one card at the Los Angeles County Fair.
The all-time leading rider at Fairplex Park with 526 wins, Pedroza capped his seven-bagger with a nose victory on Trevor's Clever in the $65,000 Jim Kostoff Stakes. It was Pedroza's 58th stakes win at Fairplex Park, four behind all-time leader David Flores.
Evangeline Downs may have lost its traditional closing-night Labor Day program to Hurricane Gustav, but the meeting posted all-time highs in average nightly handle, single-night handle, average field size, and purse distribution.
Handle for the 84-night meeting averaged $1.73 million, an increase of more than 3 percent from last year's record. Included in the total handle was the $2,444,675 bet on the evening of May 3, the date of this year's Kentucky Derby. That figure is the most money ever wagered here on a single program at the track.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - The long-standing tradition for the winning connections of the Puss N Boots Cup continued last Monday as trainer Tony Alderson and jockey Eldridge Lindsay jumped into the infield lake for a refreshing dip after 9-year-old Sandspit came home in front in the 1 1/16-mile turf event.
The race was named after the gelding Puss N Boots, who veered off the track and plunged into the lake during a race here in 1961.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Down to two horses and nearly out of the game, John Campo Jr. has apparently found a fresh start as he's become a private trainer for Paraneck Stable. Campo began working for Paraneck last month and ran his first horse for that outfit Friday when Run From Hell, a 57-1 shot, finished third in the ninth race at Belmont Park.