Indian Chant lead wire to wire in capturing the first stakes race of his career, Saturday's $75,000 Prairie Meadows Sprint.
Ridden aggressively by Glenn Corbett, the Tom Amoss-trained Indian Chant took it to the field right from the start. When challenged by Piratesonthelake at the quarter pole, he dug in and went on to prevail by three-quarters of a length.
Indian Chant, a 4 year old California bred, covered the distance in a stakes-record 1:08.08, .23 of a second off the track record.
Delta Vixen, under Ricky Faul, won the colt and gelding division of the $100,000 John Franks Memorial Sales Stakes on Saturday.
Big Erl, who had shaken free of the group of nine 2-year-olds on the turn, had to settle for second, a neck behind the winner and 1 3/4 lengths in front of Delta Angel in third. Buster Hut, favored at 7-5, was a nonthreatening fourth.
Delta Vixen ($5.80) is owned by Peter Cantrell and trained by Keith Desormeaux. A son of A. P. Delta, he covered the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:07.42 over a fast track.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches returned to the worktab Sunday morning, trainer Todd Pletcher gave strong indications that she would not run in the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama here on Aug. 18.
He didn't completely rule out the Alabama, but Pletcher is strongly considering giving Rags to Riches just one more race before the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27.
"Probably,'' Pletcher said. "It makes the most sense.''
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The omens were all there. On a day when Jose Santos, who was the regular rider for Funny Cide and Fly So Free, went into the Hall of Fame, people associated with those top horses combined to win the Grade 2, $158,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes for 3-year-olds on Monday at Saratoga.
HENDERSON, Ky. - With an event record of $4.9 million in all-sources handle on a 12-race program, Ellis Park on Saturday staged a successful ninth running of the Claiming Crown despite miserably hot weather.
"I think we lost maybe one to two thousand people because of the weather advisory that was issued for the day," said Ellis Park owner Ron Geary. "All in all, I'm very excited by the response we got for our first Claiming Crown."
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. The purse is a million dollars but the field for the Arlington Million has declined in recent days, falling from a prospective 11 down to an expected eight with three recent defections.
Out of Saturday's Million are Cosmonaut, Rob Roy, and the European horse Stage Gift, and while none of those losses strikes a breaking blow to Arlington's biggest race of the summer, a larger field would at least have looked better.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - While Canadian-bred 3-year-olds were featured in the Breeders' Stakes here Sunday, the horse who could ultimately be seen as the best in the division saw action earlier on the program.
Leonnatus Anteas, trained by Kevin Attard, was making his second start of the season and defeated a solid group of older rivals in a third-level optional $80,000 claimer over seven furlongs on turf.
Things sometimes have a way of working out, trainer Dean Pederson has discovered.
Though unhappy when the Joseph T. Grace Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair had its purse cut in half from $100,000 to $50,000, Pederson brought Now Victory back to defend his title Saturday.
Now Victory relaxed nicely under Frank Alvarado and scored a wire-to-wire victory with remarkable ease, defeating Eager Pharisien by 2 1/2 lengths in the 1o1/16-mile turf race.
DEL MAR, Calif. - By Monday morning, a day after Nashoba's Key had extended her unbeaten streak to six races with a trouble-plagued win in the $300,000 Clement Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar, trainer Carla Gaines admitted that she was feeling a little fuzzy.
The details of the race remained vivid. It was the subsequent party at her Del Mar area home that was sketchy.
"You have to celebrate," she said. "You couldn't go home and call it a night. What a special filly."
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - At the beginning of the year, Street Sense and Any Given Saturday were rated by many as the top two 3-year-olds in the country. With the dog days of summer upon us, it is starting to look like the two have come full circle.
After finishing eighth behind Street Sense in the Kentucky Derby, Any Given Saturday has come back with two strong performances, including a 4 1/2-length romp over Hard Spun in Sunday's $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. Curlin, the Preakness winner, finished third.