FLORENCE, Ky. - During his lengthy tenure as a D. Wayne Lukas assistant, Mike Maker was fortunate to savor Kentucky Derby victories with Thunder Gulch, Grindstone, and Charismatic.
Maker opened his own public stable nearly three years ago, and now he is in line to have his first Derby starter. That unlikely development unfolded in stunning style Saturday when Maker saddled With a City for the biggest upset in the 35-year history of the Grade 2, $500,000 at Turfway Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - High Blues and Sharp Humor had their final tune-ups for the $1 million Florida Derby on Saturday morning. High Blues went a half-mile in 47.40 seconds at Gulfstream Park, while Sharp Humor drilled five furlongs in 1:01.40 at the Palm Meadows training center 45 miles up the road.
High Blues worked under former rider Omar Londono on Saturday but will be ridden by Cornelio Velasquez in the Grade 1 Florida Derby.
CHICAGO - Shandy once was one of the better Illinois-bred sprinters going, but his skills declined to the point where he went winless in nine starts during 2005. Trainer Richard Hazelton entered Shandy two weeks ago in a high-end allowance race with a $100,000 claiming option that allowed Shandy into the race, but Shandy was scratched, and in any case would have been no match for the graded-stakes-class sprinter Fifteen Rounds.
CHICAGO - Brian Williamson is hitting Wayne Catalano territory, his win percentage at the National Jockey Club meet soaring into the stratosphere.
Catalano and his main owner, Frank Calabrese, tear through the Arlington season, Catalano regularly sustaining 40-percent win clips for months at a stretch. A month into the National Jockey Club meet, Williamson is winning with almost 45 percent of his starts.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The complexion of Saturday's $200,000 at Gulfstream Park changed when the gates opened and projected pacesetter Oonagh Maccool broke several lengths behind the field. But the trouble at the break obviously had little effect on the outcome of the race. After Oonagh Maccool recovered from her tardy beginning, she registered an impressive 2 1/2-length victory over Sweet Symphony in the Grade 2 event for older fillies and mares.
Smokey Glacken proved that warm weather or cold, on the lead or off the pace, it really doesn't matter these days, when she rallied to her third straight graded stakes win of the year, a neck victory over Magnolia Jackson in Saturday's $150,000 at Aqueduct.
Our Peak, aptly named for anyone who bet him on Saturday at Laurel Park, closed fast to win the $83,500 and pay $149.80 for a $2 win ticket.
Ridden by Rosie Napravink, Our Peak loped along in eighth in the field of 11 for the first six furlongs of the one-turn, one-mile race for Maryland-bred 3-year-olds.
Turning for home, the 5-1 Ah Day looked like a winner, powering to the lead three-wide under Ryan Fogelsonger and opening a clear lead in deep stretch.
Jockey Mike Luzzi was forced to take off his mounts at Aqueduct on Saturday after his release from a Manhasset, N.Y., hospital was delayed.
Luzzi, who was unseated from his mount in Friday's third race, said "I was supposed to be released first thing in the morning, but they didn't get me out of there until around 11:30."
