Sassy Love, winless in 12 starts since Dec. 8, 2005, suddenly ended her slump, battling for the lead early, turning back challenges entering the lane, and winning the $75,000 Geisha for Maryland-bred fillies and mares to set up some big payoffs.
Sassy Love covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:54.14 under Luis Garcia and paid $33.60. Trained by Casey Randall for owner Michael Harrison, she won her third race in 22 lifetime starts.
Sidcup swept past most of the field on the far turn before proceeding to a 12-1 upset in the $50,000 Prairie Bayou Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
By giving apprentice Alonso Quinonez the first stakes victory of his nascent riding career, Sidcup now has paid big mutuels in winning both of his career starts over Polytrack. He returned $26.80 to win Saturday, while an allowance victory in October at Keeneland was worth $33.
Stormin Away won his second restricted race of 2006 in Saturday's $61,000 Val Royal Stakes at Hollywood Park.
Ridden by Corey Nakatani, Stormin Away rallied wide on the final turn to catch an unlucky Buckland Manor in the final sixteenth. El Don finished third in the field of eight.
Jockey David Cohen, who rode fourth-place finisher Clipperdown, lodged an objection against Buckland Manor for interference in the stretch. After a four-minute review, the stewards disqualified Buckland Manor from second to fourth, resulting in the promotion of El Don and Clipperdown.
The Fair Grounds turf course has a reputation for swallowing up early speed horses, but for the second straight race Devilment conquered the supposed Fair Grounds anti-speed bias, leading wire to wire on the way to a sharp win in Saturday's $75,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial Handicap.
Favored Purim, bet down to even-money, was a major disappointment, stalking the pace but fading in the stretch to finish sixth. Huge longshot Raw Power filled out the place spot, edging late-running Cloudy's Knight, with Mystery Giver, last for much of the race, rallying decently for fourth.
STICKNEY, Ill. - On paper, it looked like the undefeated Caruso could lose Saturday's Jim Edgar Futurity if his pedigree, perhaps oriented more to sprints than routes, tripped him up in late stretch. Instead it was a stumble out of the gate that did him in. Caruso almost went down his first stride into the Edgar, leaving I Got a Dream on the early lead, a lead he never relinquished.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Allen Severinsen switched Cabo's Dawn to the main track and removed the 4-year-old gelding's blinkers for his last start, and the changes nearly paid off in a victory. Severinsen hopes Cabo's Dawn can improve even more on Monday and defeat seven rivals in a one-mile $32,000 optional claiming race, the closing-day feature at Bay Meadows.
OLDSMAR Fla. - When owner John Cummins purchased a maiden New York-bred filly named Marieval in January the hope was she would develop into a stakes runner on turf.
On Tuesday, Marieval, a daughter of El Prado, will attempt to get back on the road toward stakes company when she heads an overflow field of 13 fillies and mares entered in the day's optional claiming headliner at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
The Pennsylvania Nursery, a $50,000 race for statebred 2-year-old colts and geldings, doesn't usually figure in the plans of candidates for the Triple Crown trail. Three years ago, however, Smarty Jones made his second career start in the seven-furlong Nursery before heading to Oaklawn Park, where he prepped for his victories in the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
Hard Spun, a Pennsylvania-bred who has won his first two starts impressively, will attempt to follow in Smarty Jones's footsteps Monday as the odds-on favorite in the Pennsylvania Nursery at Philadelphia Park.
Seven stakes worth $500,000 will be offered during Golden Gate Fields' 31-day winter meeting beginning Dec. 26. All will be run on the main track.
Four of the stakes are for 3-year-olds, beginning on their Jan. 1 "birthday" with the $50,000 Stinson Beach at six furlongs. That race is a prep for the $150,000 California Derby at 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 28.
The $50,000 Tiburon at six furlongs for 3-year-old fillies will be run Jan. 13 as preparation for the $100,000 California Oaks at 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 10.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela is unlikely to ride on the opening-day program of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26 because of lingering soreness from a rib injury suffered on Nov. 26, according to his agent, Jim Pegram.
Valenzuela suffered three fractured ribs when he was kicked in the paddock before the fifth race at Hollywood Park. At the time, Valenzuela was tied for third in the standings of the Hollywood Park fall meeting with 14 wins.