Trainers Nancy McCabe and Philip Mills, whose horses were a combined 0 for 65 this year, both got their first win within a span of three races last Friday at Finger Lakes.
The 4-year-old filly Elaine Marie ($52.50), despite being forced to take up entering the stretch, drew off by 2 3/4 lengths under Joel Sone in race 2 to snap McCabe's 0-for-34 drought.
In race 5, John Grabowski rode Wecandobetter ($8.50) to a victory, giving Mills his first win following 31 consecutive losses.
Jockey Ivan Gonzalez scored his 1,500th career win aboard Siestaville in Tuesday's eighth race at Beulah Park.
Gonzalez, who began his riding career in 1989, has been a mainstay at Beulah over the last decade and has won several local riding titles.
Siestaville ($4.80) scored an easy 6 1/2-length win in the mile and 70- yard race for $5,000 claimers. Siestaville is trained by Jake Radosevich, who along with Albert Palacios has been Gonzalez's main trainer over the years. Palacios died in a car accident late last month.
A week ago, trainer Dale Capuano entered Cherokee's Boy in both the Maryland Million Classic on Saturday and a minor stakes at Charles Town a day later.
The $250,000 Classic was postponed for a week when 7 1/2 inches of rain fell at Laurel Park, so Cherokee's Boy ran last Sunday in the $50,000 HBPA Governor's Cup at Charles Town.
The 5-year-old Cherokee's Boy broke a 32-year-old track record for 1 1/8 miles, winning by seven lengths and earning a 108 Beyer Speed Figure
STICKNEY, Ill. - It is beginning to look a lot like winter at Hawthorne Race Course - low clouds, maiden claimers. But a last breath of summer blows into town Saturday: Gun Salute, winner of the Grade 1 Secretariat in his last start, tops the prospective field for the Grade 3, $250,000 Hawthorne Derby.
And it's a short field that he tops. As of Wednesday, the local derby, run at 1/18 miles on grass, had only five firm starters. Cosmic Kris, Embossed, Thunder Mission, and a horse named Yak the Desert Rat will try to upset the heavy favorite.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - A solid Friday night card kicks off Bay Meadows's final weekend of racing at the fall meeting.
A one-mile optional claimer with an $80,000 tag is the evening's feature, but the eight-race card also includes a first-level allowance race and a $40,000 starter allowance.
The optional claimer drew only five entrants and includes a pair of Jerry Hollendorfer-trained sprinters stretching out.
AUBURN, Wash. - Knight's Secret gave an astonishing performance here at Emerald Downs on Sunday.
Making only his second start and his first since April, the 3-year-old Knight's Secret blitzed a field of $30,000 maidens by 3 1/4 lengths in 1:08, just .40 off the track record held jointly by Blue Tejano and Salt Grinder. The second finisher, Aarons Last Dance, finished 7 1/4 lengths clear of the rest of the field of eight, lending credence to the clocking.
EAST RUTHERFORD - The Meadowlands Racetrack cancelled the Wednesday night program due to the continuing heavy rainfall in the New York metropolitan area.
It was the third straight Big M card impacted by the weather.
The track ran only one race Saturday and three on Tuesday afternoon before canceling the remainder due to uneven track conditions.
As of Wednesday morning, no decision had been as to whether the track will run on Thursday night.
The race office announced there will be no turf racing on Thursday or Friday nights.
Less than a week into the Keeneland meet, the track's Breeders' Cup preps are essentially over, but its preps for other major races have merely begun.
Thursday's one-mile Bryan Station Stakes, for example, provides an opportunity for 3-year-old turf horses to run their way into a race like the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on Nov. 27.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Keeneland starts bringing back all sorts of warm and fuzzy memories Thursday for Pat Day, the recently retired jockey believes "it could be an emotional time for me."
Still, don't look for anything remotely resembling a comeback.
"I'm sure it will be sweet, going back and reliving all those fond memories we built up over the years at Keeneland," said Day. "But it's not going to make me want to put those white pants back on and climb back into the saddle."
