LEXINGTON, Ky. - Trainer Tom Proctor and jockey Jamie Theriot teamed to win the richest race of the 2007 Keeneland fall meet with Purim, who captured the Grade 1, $600,000 Shadwell Turf Mile as a 20-1 outsider.
Proctor and Theriot will be looking for something similar when they get together Saturday at Keeneland with Closeout, a stretch-running filly who figures as one of the middle wagering choices in another Grade 1 turf event, the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.
For trainer Steven Duke, a gut feeling has turned $2,500 into $500,000.
The $2,500 is what he paid for Dreamsandvisions, who improved his career earnings to $501,371 Saturday night when he shipped from his Louisiana Downs base and scored an upset in the $100,000 Texas Hall of Fame at Retama Park.
Duke purchased Dreamsandvisions as a 2-year-old. The horse is now 6.
ELMONT, N.Y. - When it comes to this year's Breeders' Cup, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin may be in need of an equine stimulus package.
On Monday, McLaughlin said that two of his main hopes for Breeders' Cup races would not make the event: Charitable Man, among the favorites for the $2 million Juvenile, is out for the year due to a saucer fracture in his left shin. Abraaj, a multiple-stakes-winning sprinter, is sidelined after being diagnosed with a chip in his left front ankle.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Don't count Midnight Lute out of the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
That was the message from trainer Bob Baffert on Sunday after Midnight Lute worked six furlongs in 1:10.60 from the gate at Santa Anita, preparing for a defense of his victory in the 2007 BC Sprint at Monmouth Park.
"I finally have him where I had him last year," Baffert said. "I took the blinkers off of him. He stood perfect in the gate and he broke like a shot."
STICKNEY, Ill. - The champion filly Dreaming of Anna, who began her career at Arlington Park and was among the best-known Chicago-based horses of recent years, has been retired from racing and shipped from Keeneland Race Course to Three Chimneys Farm, where she will become a broodmare this winter.
Over the next few months, Peppers Pride will attempt to pad the modern-day U.S. record for consecutive victories that she set Saturday at Zia Park when she won her 17th straight race. Her connections have penciled in two upcoming stakes for her, and following those starts she could be retired, they said.
"We've discussed it," said Joel Marr, who trains Peppers Pride for owner-breeder Joe Allen. "We haven't made a firm decision either way, but that's what we're leaning toward, breeding her."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - California-based trainer Neil Drysdale, whose specialty here has been the Woodbine Mile, pulled off another major training feat here in Saturday's Grade 1 Canadian International.
Drysdale, who had won the Mile on three occasions, sent out Marsh Side to capture the $2,002,000 Canadian International at 29-1. The International is a Win and You're In race for the Breeders' Cup Turf, and Marsh Side is expected to run in that race on Oct. 25 at Santa Anita.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With the frenetic FallStars Weekend in the rearview mirror, the Keeneland fall meet will revert to a more relaxed pace with only an occasional spike in serious stakes action over the next 14 racing days.
Nine stakes were run on the opening three-day weekend, leaving 10 more through the end of the meet, Oct. 25. Foremost of those races is the lone remaining Grade 1 of the meet, the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, set for Saturday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Saturday's Breeders' Cup Win and You're In Day at Woodbine featured some surprisingly strong performances by local horses, headed by Grand Adventure's success in the Summer.
A Kentucky-bred owned by Sam-Son Farm and trained by Mark Frostad, Grand Adventure registered his second turf score in as many starts in the one-mile Summer.
Great Adventure had graduated at seven furlongs on grass in his debut under regular rider Eurico Rosa da Silva.
