HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Marty Wolfson was as confident as any trainer could be going up against the reigning Breeders' Cup Mile winner when he sent Miesque's Approval to Kentucky for the Maker's Mark Mile. But even Wolfson was surprised at the way "the old man" accelerated in the final 40 yards to catch Artie Schiller on the wire to win the Grade 2 race last Friday at Keeneland.
With one week of the 2006 Lone Star Park meet in the books, Steve Asmussen sits just where you'd expect him to - atop the trainer standings. The surprising thing is that Asmussen started just 12 horses during the first four days of racing. By comparison, Bret Calhoun sent out 17.
ALBANY, Calif. - Apprentice Melissa Stortz scored a victory Sunday in her first race as a jockey, guiding Blue Max to a seven-length victory in an $8,000 maiden claimer at five furlongs.
Stortz, a 27-year-old from Maryland, has been working as an exercise rider for several years. Mark Hanna, the trainer of Blue Max, said he wanted to put Stortz on Blue Max, and owners Paul Girdner and Reginald Jones agreed.
Fairmount Park in downstate Illinois will run a $250,000 3-year-old stakes race, dubbed the St. Louis Derby, on Aug. 26, the track announced last week.
Purse money for the 1 1/16-mile race, the richest in Fairmount's 81-year history, will be privately generated. Jeff Cooper, a prominent Fairmount owner who operates the Circle C Stables, will fund the race with the help of other sponsors. Circle C sponsored a night of several stakes races last summer at Fairmount.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Cambiocorsa stretched her winning streak to 6 with her third stakes win of the year in Sunday's $112,900 at Santa Anita. The victory marked the first graded stakes win for Cambiocorsa, who is unbeaten in seven starts on Santa Anita's hillside turf course.
Cambiocorsa was fully extended to win the Grade 3 Las Cienegas by three-quarters of a length over a fast closing Lock and Key. Ridden by Jon Court, favored Cambiocorsa ($5.20) ran about 6 1-2 furlongs on turf in 1:12.60.
ALBANY, Calif. - Melissa Stortz, 27, rode Blue Max to a seven-length victory in Sunday's third race at Golden Gate Fields in her first career start.
Stortz, an exercise rider for seven years, was originally scheduled to ride Behold Amadeus in the race, but stewards ruled against having a first-time rider aboard a first-time starter.
She broke sharply, sat behind Rooster down the backstretch, gained the lead on the turn and pulled away down the stretch in the five-furlong $8,000 maiden claimer.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Abounding Truth parlayed an ideal stalking trip into a narrow victory Sunday at Woodbine in the $128,200 , a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares.
Abounding Truth, a Southern California import trained by Josie Carroll, raced behind a five-horse speed duel on the backstretch under jockey Patrick Husbands. High Button Shoes emerged with the lead after pressing fractions of :22.17 and :45.04 seconds, but was overtaken in the final strides by Abounding Truth, who won by a neck in a final time of 1:10.55.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita's pick six carryover has reached $1,126,445 for Sunday, after bettors went untouched for the third consecutive day on Saturday.
An upset victory by the maiden Tontine Too ($95.80) in Saturday's eighth race helped trigger the carryover. None of the six winners in Saturday's pick six were favored.
Sunday's pick six covers the fourth through ninth races, the final six races on the program. Several races feature large fields.
There were only minor changes for those races at Saturday's scratch time.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Bob Baffert has turned into the king of the road in this year's Kentucky Derby prep races. He has had modest success at his home base of Santa Anita with his 3-year-olds, but when the three-time Derby-winning trainer has gone out of town, he has reaped the rewards.
Last week, in a driving rainstorm at Aqueduct, Baffert captured the Wood Memorial with Bob and John, and on Saturday, on a warm, sultry afternoon at Keeneland, he sent out Sinister Minister for a smashing upset victory in the Grade 1, $750,000 .
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Lawyer Ron will go into the Kentucky Derby undefeated on dirt after he won his sixth straight race Saturday in the Grade 2, $1 million , proving two and three-quarter lengths best in front of a record crowd of 72,484 at Oaklawn Park.
Steppenwolfer rallied for second in the 1 1/8-mile race, finishing 1 1/2 lengths in front of third-place finisher Private Vow.
