The all-turf schedule at The Meadowlands Racetrack concludes Monday afternoon with an eight-race card starting at 1:10 p.m.
The track scheduled three consecutive Mondays made up exclusively of grass races, with the goal of filling the turf void created during the installation of Monmouth Park's new course. The first all-turf card on
June 5 was rained out.
The $60,000 Miss Liberty Stakes for fillies and mares at one mile and 70 yards is Monday's feature.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Following her two narrow defeats in the Azeri Breeders' Cup and Apple Blossom, some wondered if Happy Ticket had lost a step off her Grade 1-winning form of 2005.
Apparently not.
Saturday in the Grade 2, $321,900 at Churchill Downs, Happy Ticket returned to her winning ways, edging favored Oonagh Maccool by a head in the 1 1/8-mile race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If the results of the $220,400 are conclusive, then High Cotton has made commendable strides in the last half-year or so, while Private Vow has not.
Last fall, Private Vow won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs, with High Cotton second by 2 1/4 lengths. But in their first meeting since that Nov. 26 encounter, High Cotton turned the tables in decisive fashion Saturday at Churchill, winning the Grade 3 Northern Dancer while Private Vow labored home last.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Odds-on favorite Calista Ridge took control soon after the start in Saturday's inaugural running of the $50,000 Seven Stars Stakes at Louisiana Downs and did not look back in winning her second consecutive stakes event. Nicks Nights rallied to finish second in the mile and a sixteenth test for Louisiana-bred fillies and mares. She was followed by Intractabie, Equestrian Girls and Miriam L. Blueyed Lass was a late scratch.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Take D' Tour, an emerging force in the female handicap division, left the competition in the dust Saturday in the Grade 1, $300,000 at Belmont Park.
"She's just amazing to watch," said trainer David Fawkes. "Turning for home, it looks like they're coming to her and, all of a sudden, they start swimming."
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Posed in the winner's circle after winning the , Ebony Breeze sported a dot of blood on her left front ankle - a flesh wound for an old warrior.
The Chicago BC marked Ebony Breeze's 36th career start, and if the mare was supposed to start losing her grit and fight at age 6, well, somebody forgot to tell her. Sure, with a hot early pace in front of her, the Chicago BC set up like a charm for Ebony Breeze, who won for the 12th time in a career headed toward millionaire status. But Ebony Breeze still had to go out there and do it.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Point Determined does things on his own sweet time. Saturday at Hollywood Park, that approach was good enough to win the $100,000 by a nose over A. P. Warrior.
Point Determined, who was second in the Santa Anita Derby and ninth in the Kentucky Derby earlier this spring, won his first stakes in the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap.
Jockey Victor Espinoza thought Point Determined would win easily when he took the lead in early stretch. Instead, Point Determined and A. P. Warrior fought through the stretch.
MIAMI - Frolicing likely earned herself a spot in the Grade 3 Azalea Breeders' Cup Stakes on July 15 with an impressive three-length victory over favored A Sea Trippi in Friday's Swept Away Stakes, a six-furlong overnight stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
Frolicing ($5.10) overcame a slow start and her continued penchant for bearing out into or through the stretch to register her second straight victory and first stakes success. A daughter of Royal Academy, Frolicing earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 93 for her effort.
