Palace Pier ($26.20) held off 4-5 favorite Catch the Thrill for her first stakes victory in the $150,800 Ontario Lassie at Woodbine.

Palace Pier led throughout the 1o1/16-mile race for Ontario-bred 2-year-old fillies, setting quick fractions of 24.01 and 47.62 seconds. Catch the Thrill commenced a four-wide rally on the far turn and took dead aim at Palace Pier in the stretch, but Palace Pier dug in and prevailed by three-quarters of a length. Love You Crazy was a distant third in the seven-horse field.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Gary Contessa insists Magnolia Jackson is a better horse when she can rate. She's not too shabby on the front end either.

In a scratch-reduced field of four in Saturday's $69,825 Garland of Roses Handicap at Aqueduct, Magnolia Jackson, under Ramon Dominguez, used her speed to duel with Stormy Kiss for three furlongs before putting that one away turning for home and drawing off for a two-length victory. Longshot Pleasant Laughter rallied from last to be second, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Stormy Kiss. Notimetoquit, who stumbled at the break, finished last.

VINTON, La. - Birdbirdistheword swept to the lead four wide on the final turn and held off a bid by favorite Pirates Deputy for a three-quarter-length win in Friday night’s Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs. It was another three lengths back to Xchanger in third.

The Delta Jackpot is the richest race in Louisiana, and was one of five stakes on a card worth a cumulative $1.5 million.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Tanya's Toad will shoot for a second straight win when he takes on eight rivals in Sunday's top Thoroughbred offering at Portland Meadows, a six-furlong race for $6,250 claimers who have never won two races.

PORTLAND, Ore. - For a time on Tuesday it looked as though leading rider Joe Crispin would sweep the 10-race card at Portland Meadows. Crispin, with a big boost from leading trainer Jim Fergason, who put him on four winners, scored in the first six races before finishing off the board in the seventh.

Crispin came right back to win the eighth race aboard the Jonathan Nance-trained Chickenpotpie, thereby equaling the local record of seven riding wins on a single program. Crispin shared that record with Felipe Valdez, having tied that rider's mark here in 1998.

MIAMI - After taking on graded stakes company for most of her career, Splendid Blended will get some much-appreciated class relief when she takes on five rivals in Sunday's $45,000 Marina de Chavon Stakes at Calder.

The Marina de Chavon will share top billing on Sunday's card with the $60,000 GTOBA Debutante Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 2-year-old fillies who are progeny of stallions nominated to the Georgia Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association program.

CHICAGO - Kentucky Derby dreams in December at Hawthorne? Perhaps not a completely absurd scenario, given the performance turned in on Wednesday by a 2-year-old colt named Makeithapencaptain.

A mare who cost a mere $3,000 12 years ago continues to pay dividends for co-owners Ron Glorioso and Mark Rosen.

Cajun Hottie, a 2-year-old homebred daughter of the bargain buy Hot Little Dish, became a stakes winner Thursday night when she romped to a 5 1/4-length victory over 8-5 favorite Precisely Sue in the 30th running of the $42,900 Blue Mountain Juvenile at Penn National Race Course.

Hot Little Dish, purchased at Fairmount Park in 1994, went on to win 12 of 32 starts and $127,742. Cajun Hottie is her first stakes winner.

SAN MATEO, Calif. – Russell Baze rode the rail to his record-setting 9,531st victory Friday aboard Butterfly Belle in the fourth race at Bay Meadows, surpassing Laffit Pincay Jr. to become horse racing’s all-time winningest rider.

Baze, 48, was well back early in the five-furlong $12,500 claimer on the turf, but he and Butterfly Belle rallied inside to win by 2 1/4 lengths, returning $5.60 as the 9-5 favorite.

NEW ORLEANS - The first barn you come to on the Fair Grounds backstretch sports the blue and white colors of Bryan and Vicki Krantz, who owned the track before Churchill Downs purchased it in 2004. Inside the trainer's office sits Gary Palmisano, a Fair Grounds veteran and trainer who saddled his first winner at the New Orleans oval, We Ade, back in 1974. Palmisano has trained the Krantz horses for 25 years, but hurricane Katrina put him out of business.