Owner/trainer Del Waite and jockey Osvaldo Vargas pulled off the upset when Dancing Till Dawn ($32.60) rallied to win the $50,000 Ann Arbor Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths at Pinnacle Race Course on Monday.
Twilighted Thistle and Clever Idea finished second and third, respectively, while favored Wave Pool was up for fourth in the field of 10..
The 4-year-old filly Allnightdance not only outfought Cat Hop to barely reach the wire first, but earned a course record and her first career stakes victory in the process Monday night at Mountaineer Racetrack.
Making a six-wide move under Oswald Pereira, Allnightdance ($28.40) got up by a head in the co-featured $75,000 Summer Finale Handicap for fillies and mares. Her time of 1:37.94 for a mile and 70 yards erased the turf course record of 1:38.14 set by the 3-year-old filly Beautiful Venue on Aug. 4, 2007.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Trainer Judi Hicklin pulled the upset of the meet in the $50,000 Shakopee Stakes at Canterbury Park on Monday when Let It Rock edged his stablemate Wayzata Bay in the mile and 70-yard contest as the longest wagering choice in the field of five.
The Henderson, Ky., sheriff's office on Tuesday was reviewing videotape of a failed armed robbery of a section of mutuel-wagering windows that occurred shortly after Ellis Park ran the last race of its summer meet the previous evening.
Ellis spokesman Mark Geary said six people had been sequestered at the track late Monday for questioning by law-enforcement officials and that he believed arrests were imminent, although none had been made as of early Tuesday afternoon.
RUIDOSO, N.M. - Stolis Winner, the 9-5 favorite, pulled away from 5-2 second-choice Jet Black Patriot to win the 50th running of the Grade 1, $1.9 million All American Futurity by a half-length on Monday at Ruidoso Downs.
Jockey G.R. Carter Jr. pushed Stolis Winner over the 440 yards in 21.17 seconds for the gelding's third Grade 1 futurity win. He won the Grade 1, $1 million Heritage Place Futurity at Remington Park and the Grade 1, $625,000 at Ruidoso Downs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Alan Garcia and trainer Bobby Frankel capped an excellent Saratoga season on Monday when Garcia guided the Frankel-owned and -trained Vineyard Haven to a front-running 2 1/4-length score in the Grade 1, $250,000 Hopeful Stakes.
The victory enabled the 22-year-old Garcia to clinch the Saratoga riding title while giving Frankel his fourth Grade 1 win of the meet.
Garcia won two races on Monday, giving him 39 for the meet, three more than John Velazquez.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Trainer Christopher Paasch said he had reserved the name Stardom Bound five years ago, saving it for a special filly. He finally submitted the name for a Tapit filly he bought for owner Charles Cono at a 2-year-old in training sale earlier this year, and on Monday at Del Mar, everybody saw why.
Their first-stringers had Labor Day off, but the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby at Philadelphia Park still came down to a battle between Nick Zito and Rick Dutrow. The outcome was in doubt to the final strides, when the Zito-trained Anak Nakal finally caught Dutrow-trained Acai to win the $1 million race for 3-year-olds by a neck.
Rebounding from a fifth-place finish in the Jim Dandy, Anak Nakal began picking off rivals around the far turn under Joe Bravo, came three wide into the stretch, and closed with a determined surge to catch Acai in the final strides.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Despite spotting significant weight to all of his rivals, Legal Move ($3.90) ran down all the speed to win the six-furlong Kenora Stakes at Woodbine Monday.
The Kenora was one of six $125,000 Canadian-bred stakes on the card for graduates of local Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society yearling sales. Each winner earned $75,000.
Hampered by inclement weather for the first three weeks, Saratoga's 36-day meet suffered declines in attendance and handle.
Attendance was down 8.5 percent while ontrack handle declined 6.8 percent and all-sources handle declined 10.3 percent compared with 2007.
Admission was free on Monday, closing day, and New York Racing Association officials announced a crowd of 28,578. That brought the total attendance to 876,627, down from last year's total of 958,574.
