The 7-year-old gelding Five Steps ($4.20) successfully shortened up from 1 1/8 miles to 6 1/2 furlongs to win the $50,000 Taking Risks Stakes, the closing-day feature at Timonium.
Five Steps, now 3 for 4 this season, provided jockey Juan Acosta with his fourth of five wins on the nine-race card and clinched his second consecutive Timonium riding title.
Stewart Elliott rode his fifth winner of the day as Who's the Cowboy came from far back to nip Joey P. by a neck in the $93,000 Icecapade Stakes at Monmouth Park.
Joey P. looked to have his 13th career win at Monmouth locked up when he surged past dueling pacesetters Mobo and Stormin Normandy turning for home.
Who's the Cowboy, four-wide through the lane, kicked home strongly to win the battle of the two New Jersey bred 6-year-old geldings.
DEL MAR, Calif. - In the end, trainer Doug O'Neill and owner Joseph LaCombe decided to stick with the original plan. They ignored the temptation of a Grade 1 race and bypassed the Del Mar Futurity on Wednesday with Azul Leon in order to point for the Grade 1, $250,000 Norfolk Stakes on Sept. 28 at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting.
Heavy favorites from high-powered trainers Linda Rice and Rick Dutrow swept both stakes for New York-bred 2-year-olds on Monday's holiday card at Finger Lakes.
Mother Russia ($2.90), an easy winner of her career debut at Saratoga less than three weeks earlier, held off Fabulous Florence by three-quarters of a length in the $156,612 Lady Finger for fillies, while one race later, unbeaten colt Dagnabit ($3.10) extended his winning streak to three races with a 5 1/2-length romp in the $144,213 Aspirant.
Chad Beckon, the leading rider at Fort Erie, will be out of action indefinitely after sustaining a concussion when he was thrown from his mount during the eighth race on Saturday. Beckon, who finished second with 73 victories at Fort Erie last year, has ridden 63 winners this season.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Ice Bear, prepping for a probable appearance in Sunday's Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, breezed five furlongs in 1:03.60 over the E.P. Taylor turf course here Monday morning.
The going was firm as Ice Bear worked on the outer part of the course under jockey Chantal Sutherland.
"You couldn't tell much, going around the 'dogs,' " said Mac Benson, who trains Ice Bear for owner/breeder George Strawbridge Jr.
DEL MAR, Calif. - For a guy with a small barn, trainer Howard Zucker has had a very big meet this summer at Del Mar. He has sent out eight starters, and four of them have won. Three of those wins have come in turf sprints, with the fillies Synnin and Grinnin and Queen of the Catsle, and on Wednesday at Del Mar, Zucker will send out those fillies in split $65,000 divisions of the Daisycutter Handicap, attempting to add to his totals for the meet, and in turf sprints.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Ice Bear, prepping for a probable appearance in Sunday's Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, breezed five furlongs in 1:03.60 over the E.P. Taylor turf course here Monday morning.
The going was firm as Ice Bear worked on the outer part of the course under jockey Chantal Sutherland.
"You couldn't tell much, going around the 'dogs,' " said Mac Benson, who trains Ice Bear for owner/breeder George Strawbridge Jr.
FLORENCE, Ky. - It won't be difficult to connect the synthetic dots from Kentucky to California this fall. With most of the Oct. 24-25 Breeders' Cup championships being run on the synthetic surface at Santa Anita, horsemen throughout North America are looking long and hard at giving their horses a final prep in Kentucky.
That's because the Kentucky Cup series will be run Sept. 27 on the Polytrack at Turfway Park, followed by the FallStars series on Oct. 3-5, opening weekend of the fall meet at Keeneland, which also uses Polytrack as its primary racing surface.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Roger Attfield's Sunday afternoon did not begin auspiciously as he was forced to scratch Not Bourbon, the probable odds-on favorite, from the Vice Regent Stakes at Woodbine.
But all's well that ends well, and Attfield still got to celebrate when Sand Cove, his "other" entrant, reported home a half-length in front for his first stakes victory in the $125,400 Vice Regent.
Sand Cove, a colt owned by Ralph Johnson, was making his turf debut in the one-mile race for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds.