ALBANY, Calif. - Golden Gate Fields has no stakes races scheduled this week, but the track will showcase an Eclipse Award winner. Declan's Moon, who won all four starts in earning an Eclipse as a 2-year-old in 2004, runs Saturday in a one-mile allowance race.
Declan's Moon has gone 0-for-4 since winning the Grade 2 Santa Catalina in March of 2005. He was sidelined for more than a year after that race.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The classic handicapping question of current form vs. old class will come into play in Wednesday's $48,000 feature at Gulfstream Park when the up-and-coming Americanrevolution takes on stakes veterans Greeley's Legacy, King of Jazz, and Great Point going one mile under second-level allowance conditions.
Sagamoon remains a bit immature, but she also remains extremely talented. For the third straight time, talent overcame immaturity as Sagamoon took Sunday's $70,850 Busanda Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths over My Kitty at Aqueduct.
After stalking the pace-setting Shelby Memory through six furlongs in 1:13.93, Sagamoon, under Eibar Coa, took over inside the three-sixteenths pole.
Bill Place won the early pace battle with Wollaston Bay, then drew away from that rival in the final furlong to register a 3 1/4-length victory in Monday's $62,082 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters at Aqueduct.
Wollaston Bay, the 4-5 favorite, finished second by 6 1/4 lengths over B.B. Mancini. Holy Wonder and Place Your Bet, the only other entrants, were scratched.
Cort's P.B. came back in the stretch to beat the previously undefeated Tensas Phone Call by a head in the $50,000 Cypress at Delta Downs on Saturday night. It was another 7 1/2 lengths back in third to Zarb's Dahar.
The Cypress was one of two stakes on the card restricted to horses bred in Louisiana.
Cort's P.B. ($4.20) set the pace from his rail post in the seven-furlong Cypress, which was run around two turns. He fought late for the win, and covered the distance over a fast track in 1:25.79.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Sugar Shakes hard-fought win in the $150,000 El Encino Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday may be a precursor of the fillys 2007 campaign. Trainer Bobby Frankel left the winners circle wondering if she was ready to run in the Grade 2 race, and thinking there was room for improvement.
I dont know if she was 100 percent fit, Frankel said.
ARCADIA, Calif. For the third time in the last five days, no one hit the pick six on Saturday at Santa Anita, leading to a one-day carryover of $178,390.20 heading into Sunday's races.
There is a nine-race card at Santa Anita on Sunday, so the pick six will begin with the fourth race, with a post time of 2:03 Pacific.
Guiding Hand went gate-to-wire to post a mild upset in Sunland's $50,000 Winsham Lad Handicap Saturday. The 4-year-old son of Helmsman, owned by Frontier Stables LLC and Joey Davis and trained by Chris Hartman, went into the mile event off two wins in his previous three starts. Sent off at 7-2, he dueled for the early lead in the field of 11 older horses, spurted clear on the far turn, and was never really threatened, reporting home 3 1/2 lengths clear under Ken Tohill.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Five 3-year-old sprinters who each made his last start at a different racetrack will converge at Aqueduct on Monday in the $65,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at six furlongs.
Horses coming from Mountaineer, Arlington, Philadelphia, and Laurel will take on local hopeful Wollaston Bay in the featured event on a nine-race Martin Luther King Jr. Day card.