Sky Conqueror manhandled a quality field in the Grade 2, $300,400 Monday at Woodbine.
Sky Conqueror raced about 2 1/2 lengths off a slow pace on the backstretch of the nine-furlong turf event. He trailed on the turn, then commenced a wide rally at the top of the stretch under Todd Kabel.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Wait a While was an accomplished filly earlier this year in major stakes on dirt. It seems those performances were a warm-up to her true calling of racing on turf.
In her stakes debut on grass, Wait a While dominated seven rivals in Sunday's $750,000 at Hollywood Park, drawing off in the stretch to win by 4 1-2 lengths. The Grade 1 Oaks was Wait a While's second start on turf; she beat maidens on turf at Belmont Park last summer.
"We always felt she was better on grass," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "It was a matter of getting her back on it."
PLEASANTON, Calif. - Sharoana ($5.80), already stakes-placed at Hollywood Park, completed a weekend stakes sweep for trainer Jeff Bonde, winning the $53,050 Everett Nevin Alameda County Futurity on Sunday at the Alameda County Fair.
Sharoana, making the second start of her career against males, won the five-furlong Cal-bred race for 2-year-olds, defeating stakes-winning Zoning In by two lengths in 57.43 seconds. Her stablemate, Untouched Talent, won Saturday's Juan Gonzalez Memorial for 2-year-old fillies in 57.53 seconds.
AUBURN, Wash. - Livinonlovanadime stalked the pace of Courting Seattle to the sixteenth marker, then surged late to post a half-length victory over that rival in Sunday's one mile, $56,650 Tacoma Handicap for 3-year-olds at Emerald Downs. Ragin Nonno got up for third in a field of 10.
Livinonlovanadime, a son of Devil's Bag from the barn of trainer Jim Penney, got the distance in 1:35.60 and paid $13.60 to win his first stakes in his fourth career start. He earned $32,175 for owners Mike and Amy Feuerborn and John and Jolene Maryanski.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The Grade 3, $150,000 Boiling Springs Stakes is the main attraction on the Independence Day card at Monmouth Park. The 1 1/16-mile Boiling Springs, on the turf, drew nine 3-year-old fillies, each in search of her first graded stakes victory.
Perilous Pursuit could be ready to take that step. She has won two straight starts, including the Late Bloomer Stakes at Belmont Park.
"She's doing very well so we're going to take a chance," said trainer Sal Russo.
ELMONT, N.Y. - John Ward believes he will know just where he stands with his talented colt following Tuesday's renewal of the Grade 2, $150,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park.
Strong Contender finished third in the Peter Pan Stakes 45 days ago over a dry Belmont track that Ward didn't think he handled. Since then, Strong Contender has given Ward every reason to believe he's ready to return to peak form.
"I make no excuses for him, he's a dead-fit horse,'' Ward said. "He'll go out there with a top rider on him. Handicappers of America will find out just like me."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Except when his public stable was in its formative stages in the late 1990's, this is the first Churchill Downs spring meet where Todd Pletcher has been active on a daily basis. And even by Pletcher's lofty standards, the results have been exceptionally good.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Diamond Dave needed a warm-up race before he beat maidens convincingly on May 29. Diamond Dave won so well that trainer Doug O'Neill is optimistic that the colt will play an important role in 2-year-old stakes this summer.
"He took it to them and ran dynamite," O'Neill said of the maiden race. "He knew what to do."
Tuesday at Hollywood Park, can fulfill O'Neill's hope when he makes his stakes debut in the $100,000 Hollywood Juvenile Championship.
AUBURN, Wash. - A field of five promising 3-year-olds will face off in Tuesday's best race at Emerald Downs, a first-level allowance test at six furlongs carded as race 5.
Competition for the lead figures to be intense, as each of the entrants but one collected his maiden victory in gate-to-wire fashion. Two did so on the maiden special weight level.
Bella Shambrock will try to turn the tables on Bring Forth, who defeated him two starts back, when the pair head a field of nine 2-year-olds racing five furlongs in the $50,000 Prairie Gold Juvenile Stakes at Prairie Meadows on Tuesday.
Trained by Todd Pletcher, Bella Shambrock crushed a field of maiden special weight rivals by 14 lengths going five furlongs last out on June 2 at Monmouth Park, earning a Gold Juvenile field topping Beyer Speed Figure of 83.
