Winless on dirt in more than a year, Easy Red returned to the main track at Laurel on Saturday and came back with a victory in the $75,000 Jennings Handicap, rallying through the stretch to defeat Tartlet by a head.
Easy Red's last win had come on turf in July at Delaware Park, where he had gained his last main-track win in June 2005.
Dream of Angels raced his competition into defeat through the opening half-mile, then asserted his authority through the stretch to post a 14 1/4-length victory in the $60,000 Inaugural Stakes before 5,582 fans on Saturday, opening day of Tampa Bay Downs' 2006-07 meeting.
Under Richard Eramia, Dream of Angels returned $3.20 as the strong choice of the field of 11 juveniles, posting his fourth win in a row. A Trippi colt, he covered the six furlongs over a fast track in a very solid 1:10.89.
Royal Kleven ($7.40), a runner-up in four stakes earlier this year, scored a victory in the $97,500 California Distaff Turf Championship at Bay Meadows on Saturday.
A 6-year-old mare, Royal Kleven unleashed a strong kick in the stretch, catching pacesetting Loyal Bounty and winning the one-mile turf race for California-breds by three-quarters of a length. Ridden by Chad Schvaneveldt, Royal Kleven ran the mile on a yielding turf course in 1:39.99.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Richard Hazelton, who grew up with short-winded stock in the Southwest, likes to poke fun at himself as a struggling trainer of route horses. Reality paints a different picture.
For the second straight year, Hazelton won the Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante, the first two-turn 2-year-old dirt stakes of the year in Chicago. Last year it was Rolling Sea, who relished the Whitworth's 1 1/16-mile distance, and this year Copper State won a stretch-long war of attrition, outlasting front-running Rich N Clever to win the $117,650 Whitworth by a half-length.
Blues Girl Too, the only filly in a field of 10, pulled an upset in Friday's Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, adding confusion to an already murky championship picture for the nation's 2-year-old Quarter Horse division.
The Two Million Futurity was the richest Quarter Horse race in the nation this year.
Ridden by Saul Ramirez, Jr., Blues Girl Too ($23.20) ran 400 yards in 19.31 seconds, the second-fastest 400 yards in track history.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Magna Graduate ended a disappointing year on a positive note Saturday, taking control of the Grade 3, $107,700 Queens County Handicap three strides out of the gate and rolling to a 6 1/2-length victory before 4,891 at Aqueduct.
Papi Chullo finished second, 9 1/4 lengths ahead of Smart Growth. Angliana, Naughty New Yorker, and Awesome Twist completed the order of finish.
The reigning world champion, DM Shicago, will return to New Mexico, the scene of his Grade 1 wins, for the $200,000 Zia Park Quarter Horse Championship at 440 yards on Sunday afternoon.
At Ruidoso Downs, he won the 2004 All American Futurity and then earned his 2005 world championship with Grade 1 wins in the Ruidoso, Rainbow, and All American derbies. The Championship will be his Zia Park debut.
Paul Jones, the four-time defending national Quarter Horse training champion and the solid choice to win the 2006 national title, has four horses in the Grade 1, $192,000 Southern California Derby and the probable odds-on favorite in the Grade 1, $50,000 Marathon National on Sunday night at Los Alamitos.
In the Southern California Derby, Jones will send out Spike It and Fly, the fastest qualifier, as well as Volcom, In Dispute, and Redwood Creek.
Snowbound Superstar brings an undefeated record at 870 yards into the 870-yard Marathon for Jones.
Terry Thompson rode a winner on Nov. 26, opening day of the Turfway Park holiday meet, bringing him to within two of hitting the 2,000-win milestone.
Thompson then retreated to Ankeny, Iowa, which he has made his year-round home for the past five years with his wife and four children. Two thousand, it seems, can wait, and with good reason.
