INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Squallacious showed the talent of a veteran when she won her career debut at Hollywood Park on April 29. She overcame traffic on the turn of a six-furlong maiden race to win by 1 3/4 lengths.
Wednesday, the 3-year-old makes her first start against winners in a $49,000 allowance race for fillies and mares. She may need to show the same poise as she did in the maiden race to beat a more experienced field.
Siphon City had never run in a graded stakes, while Congrats is already a Grade 2 winner and has placed in multiple Grade 1 stakes. But when those two hooked up through the stretch in Monday's Grade 3 Memorial Day Handicap at Calder, it was Siphon City who appeared as the seasoned stakes veteran, turning back the challenge from his classy rival for a 1 1/2-length victory under jockey Elvis Trujillo.
It is already understood that John Velazquez is a talented rider. Now he can be described to be a fast healer as well.
Velazquez, who suffered a fractured shoulder blade and a cracked rib in a spill at Keeneland on April 20, will return to the saddle on Friday when he rides the unraced 2-year-old Scat Daddy at Monmouth Park for trainer Todd Pletcher. It is Velazquez's only mount on the card. Pletcher had entered Scat Daddy in a similar spot on the same day at Belmont Park, but the race did not fill with enough entries to be carded.
Max West overcame an objection and the presence of an odds-on favorite to record the biggest payday of his 42-race career Monday at Philadelphia Park.
A 6-year-old gelding who was claimed out of a ninth-place finish in a $6,250 dirt race in January 2005, Max West drew clear from Yankee Wildcat in the stretch to win the $100,000 Turf Monster Handicap by 1 3/4 lengths.
Pisgah, the 1-2 favorite in a field reduced to six older horses by four scratches, rallied mildly to finish a head behind Yankee Wildcat in third.
T.D. Vance got away with slow fractions and outlasted heavy favorite Tiganello by a half-length to win the $56,100 Eight Thirty Stakes at Delaware Park.
A Grade 2 winner at Saratoga last year, T.D. Vance ($8) ran poorly in his first start of 2006, finishing last of 10 in the Grade 3 Miami Mile at Calder. With Jose Caraballo aboard for the first time, T.D. Vance went to the front in the 1 1/8-mile Eight Thirty and was allowed to loaf through soft fractions of 25.20 seconds, 50.25, and 1:14.25.
Carlow, making her first start since late December, came from far off the pace to run down 16-1 longshot She'stenontop by a half-length in the the $50,000 Susan B. Anthony Handicap at Finger Lakes.
Ridden by Paul Nicol Jr. for trainer Karl Grausmark, Carlow ($14.40) was eighth, seven lengths behind, when she mounted a six-wide move on the turn and was moving fastest of all in deep stretch. Winning for the first time since taking the New York Oaks last September, Carlow was timed in 1:11.78 in the six-furlong race for New York-bred fillies and mares.
Extra Bend, claimed by trainer Scott Volk for $50,000 in March, held off odds-on favorite Electrify and Unbridled Behavior in a three-horse photo to win the $65,000 Spend a Buck Stakes at Monmouth Park.
Returning to the main track after finishing second in the Woodlawn at Pimlico on May 6, Extra Bend ($27) emerged with a clear lead in midstretch and was all out to hold off the late rush of 4-5 favorite Electrify by a neck, with Unbridled Behavior another head back in third.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Sweet Talker won a photo over Joint Aspiration to capture the Grade 3, $200,000 WinStar Distaff for fillies and mares by a head at Lone Star Park. The race was one of six stakes worth a cumulative $1 million on Lone Star Million Day. The feature race of the day, the Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, was to follow the WinStar Distaff.
Sweet Talker ($4.60) raced along the inside early and stalked the pace set by Paz Ciudadana. Sweet Talker rallied through the stretch, covering the mile for fillies and mares over yielding turf in 1:38.66.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Making his first start of the year, Northern Scene stalked a very quick pace in Monday's featured $50,000 Barksdale Stakes before firing down the lane and emerging on top in a three-horse photo finish. Dreamsandvisions and Commander Buck dead heated for the place, a half-length behind the winner and three quarters of a length in front of Witt Ante.
