STICKNEY, Ill. - Chris Block doesn't focus on 2-year-old races, but Creative Force left him no choice. Bred and owned by Block's family, which races as Team Block, Creative Force didn't even make his career debut until Nov. 3, but Saturday at Hawthorne he impressively won the $105,950 Jim Edgar Illinois Futurity.
"He was kind of slow to come around," Block said. "My dad kept asking me, 'When are you going to stop on him?' But he really started training well this fall."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Jose Espinoza isn't winning all the races this winter at Aqueduct. He's just winning all the right ones.
Espinoza recorded his third stakes win of Aqueduct's inner-track season on Saturday when he guided India Halo past odds-on favorite Bohemian Lady in deep stretch to win the $82,750 by a head before a crowd of 4,646. It was 2 3/4 lengths back to Taittinger Rose in third.
Brass Hat got a perfect trip under Willie Martinez before drawing off to his fourth stakes victory Saturday in the $50,000 Prairie Bayou Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
Dismissed as the 9-2 fourth choice in a field of 10 3-year-olds and upward, Brass Hat returned $11.40 after completing 1 1/8 miles in 1:52.50 over a fast Polytrack surface.
Of the two fillies trainer Dickie Small ran in the $50,000 Squan Song Stakes at Laurel Park, bettors much preferred Feelin' the Breeze at 3-1 and largely ignored her uncoupled stablemate, Magical Broad, at 10-1.
Public opinion was dead wrong. Although Magical Broad was winless in five starts since July and fell down over another horse two races ago, she had the best closing kick in the seven-furlong Squan Song and rallied to overtake 5-2 favorite Starleena by 3 1/4 lengths.
Culinary stalked the pace under Carlos Marquez Jr. before taking command through the stretch to capture the $75,000 Furl Sail Handicap by 4 1/2 lengths at the Fair Grounds meeting at Louisiana Downs. Glitteration held on for second after helping set the pace, followed by Go Girlfriend Go.
Originally scheduled for a mile on the turf, the Furl Sail was moved to the main track at a mile and 70 yards following some overnight rain.
A group critical of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association met Saturday at Hawthorne Race Course to name replacements for the sitting ITHA president and board, but the current ITHA administration denounced the action as illegal in a lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County circuit court.
Saturday was a difficult day for trainer Benny Feliciano. His nine-race winning streak came to an end when Clever Jimmy C. finished second in the 13th race at Thistledown, and his son, jockey Ricardo Feliciano, was injured in a spill earlier on the card.
Ricardo Feliciano, who had ridden all nine winners during his father's streak, was thrown hard to the ground in the third race when his mount, S.R. Alladin Girl, broke down in midstretch. Feliciano injured his left shoulder in the incident.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - has crossed under the wire first in all three of her starts, has won at 1 1/16 miles, and is adored by her trainer, the veteran David Hofmans.
That outstanding start to her career will make her the favorite in Sunday's $447,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Hollywood Park.
"She's pretty awesome," Hofmans said. "She's a good-sized 2-year-old and, unusually, she is really mature. It doesn't go hand-and-hand. Often times, you have a great big horse with the mind of an infant."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After Sunday's card, Aqueduct takes a nine-day holiday break. Handicappers may need that time to recover after trying to dope out the winner of Sunday's $75,000 Gravesend Handicap.
The feature on a 10-race card that begins at 12:10 p.m., the six-furlong Gravesend drew a field of 11, and a case can be made for about nine of the sprinters. Smokume, the winner of the Grade 2 Tom Fool Handicap, is the 119-pound highweight, but he must overcome the outside post and a lengthy layoff.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Trainer Jeff Trosclair has not had Fort Prado for very long, but he already likes what he sees. Fort Prado will be the starting highweight in Sunday's $75,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley at the Fair Grounds meet at Louisiana Downs, which drew a field of seven and will be run at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
"We've had him for about two weeks now," said Trosclair on Friday morning. "He is a big, strapping individual who looks like a runner, and his past performances seem to back that up."
