Dixie Dreamer got the best of She Says It Best in a stretch-long duel when giving veteran trainer Mike Estes the richest victory of his career in the $100,000 Bassinet Stakes.
Always close under Marco Ccamaque, Dixie Dreamer engaged front-running She Says It Best leaving the turn before edging clear to prevail by a head. The winner returned $44.20 as the second-longest shot in a field of seven 2-year-old fillies.
Kelly Breen dropped his program when Keeneland Kat got away poorly in the $100,000 Sorority Stakes.
"Not too many 2-year-old fillies come running from that far back," the trainer said.
But then, this could be a very special filly.
Overcoming the tardy start, Keeneland Kat was full of run in the lane to win Monmouth's top event for juvenile fillies.
Keeneland Kat ($9) ran the six furlongs over the fast track in 1:11.23 and won by 2 1/2 lengths over Unobstructed View, with Pure Disco third.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Although Better Talk Now has won the 2004 Breeders' Cup Turf and two other Grade 1 races, trainer Graham Motion said he believes the 6-year-old gelding does not receive the recognition he deserves.
"I still feel there is a stigma about this horse, which is odd considering he has won some of the most prestigious turf races - the Breeders' Cup, Sword Dancer, and United Nations," Motion said. "I want to get him to the Breeders' Cup again to prove it wasn't a fluke. If I can get him there, he will prove it."
Bossier City, La. - Malika's Gold ran to her highweight assignment in Saturday's Lyrique Handicap at Harrah's Louisiana Downs, besting nine fellow 3-year-old fillies in determined fashion. Longshot Prospectors Spirit outfinished heavy favorite Where's Bailey for the place spot with Counterpoise reporting home fourth.
With six of the 10 qualifiers in their barns, trainers Paul Jones or Heath Taylor might well be on the verge of a first win Monday at Ruidoso Downs, N.M.
A $1.9 million race, the All American Futurity is for 2-year-old Quarter Horses and is run at the classic Quarter Horse distance of 440 yards.
CINCINNATI - Even in retirement, Pat Day is still impacting the way trainer Pat Byrne conducts his business.
Day, who partnered with Byrne as the regular rider of such top horses as Favorite Trick and Awesome Again, rode Key West Breeze in the colt's first two starts. Byrne said last week that before Day retired last month, he repeatedly told Byrne that Key West Breeze stood an excellent chance to improve with distance.
"Pat said this colt would only get better when he went long," said Byrne.
Sea Dub paid $109 the last time he raced in a stakes at 1 1/8 miles. He again races in a 1 1/8-mile stakes on Monday, when he will be one of the favorites in the $125,000 DeBartolo Memorial Breeders' Cup Handicap at Remington Park.
The turf race is one of three stakes on a holiday card that will have a first post of 2:30 p.m. Central. The DeBartolo will be supported by the $40,000 Ricks Memorial for fillies and mares on turf, and the $40,000 Clever Trevor for 2-year-olds.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Cindy Embers looks for her second restricted stakes win this year in Monday's $40,000 Distaff here at Assiniboia Downs. The Distaff, a one-mile race for Manitoba-bred fillies and mares, attracted a field of nine.
Claimed for $9,375 by trainer Blair Miller for the Pain in the Aces Stable in her first start of the year, Cindy Ember won her maiden in the restricted R.C. Anderson Stakes three start ago. A 3-year-old daughter of Incinderator, Cindy Embers followed up that race with a win over first-level allowance foes.
Mining Gold put up the best qualifying time but still has something to prove Monday as he heads a field of 12 juveniles ready to go six furlongs in the $15,000 Yavapai Downs Futurity. The race goes as the seventh race on a nine-race card, as the meet winds down with closing day on Tuesday.
Mining Gold, owned by Jack Whyman and trained by Kevin Lewis, did some good work at Turf Paradise in the spring, enough to warrant a trip to Santa Rosa in northern California for a stakes try there Aug. 7. He stalked the pace but tired to end up fifth of nine at 19-1.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - When Bluesbdancing, injured early this year and out of serious action for several months, won an overnight stakes race here Aug. 13 in her first start of the season, she paid $41.60 to win. She also marked herself as a horse who could boss Illinois-bred female stakes horses for years to come.
"We got a late start this year, and we're looking and hoping she really turns into an extra-special filly," said Terrel Gore, who trains Bluesbdancing for owners Bob and Nancy Bartels.
