ELMONT, N.Y. - After Bank Audit ran a disappointing fifth in the Bed o' Roses Breeders' Cup Handicap last month, her connections were considering giving her a two-month freshening.
But two weeks after that race, trainer Frank Laboccetta called owner Robert Amendola and asked him to devise a Plan B.
"I said, 'This filly is just doing too good; there's no way I could keep her in the barn for six weeks,' " Laboccetta said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - One week after the Kentucky Derby, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith once again found himself celebrating a stakes victory at Churchill Downs. Smith, who rode Giacomo to a Derby upset, won the $109,700 Matt Winn Stakes aboard favored Razor on Saturday.
DETROIT - Don't expect much fanfare when tiny Great Lakes Downs begins the Michigan Thoroughbred season on Monday for the seventh time since the Detroit Race Course closed in 1998. The bell will ring on a 105-date meeting at the five-eighths-mile oval near Muskegon in southwest Michigan, but all eyes will remain firmly focused on the Office of the Racing Commissioner in suburban Detroit.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The Monmouth Park season began Saturday on a cool and clear afternoon on the Jersey Shore. Smokume, trained by Hall of Famer Allen Jerkens, won the $65,000 Decathlon Stakes, the featured race on the 11-race card.
Rain, forecast for the area, never materialized and a crowd of 15,293 turned out for the first of 90 dates through Sept. 25.
MIAMI - Trainer Ralph Ziadie, who won the 1999 Met Mile with Sir Bear, will try to do it again later this month when he sends Silver Wagon up to New York for the Grade 1 race.
Silver Wagon comes off a third-place finish behind Clock Stopper in Keeneland's Grade 2 Commonwealth Breeders' Cup at seven furlongs on April 16. The son of Wagon Limit, who is owned by Buckram Oak Farm, is already a Grade 1 winner, having captured Saratoga's Hopeful Stakes as a 2-year-old in 2003.
The versatile Forest Grove has successfully made the transformation from turf miler to stakes-winning sprinter.
Saturday in the $150,000 at Hollywood Park, Forest Grove won his first graded stakes under a perfect ride from jockey Corey Nakatani.
Forest Grove was always near the front. Nakatani kept him in fourth behind three pacesetters until the end of the backstretch. On the turn, Nakatani guided Forest Grove through along the rail to take the lead.
Shaun Bridgmohan is kind of the replacement for departed leading jockey Rene Douglas at Arlington. Douglas had the same agent as Bridgmohan when he was here, and came to Arlington with a similar sort of national standing. And on the first Saturday of the Arlington meet, Bridgmohan picked up where Douglas left off, winning a weekend stakes race.
Placido, victimized by unlucky starts in 2 of his 3 races this spring at Gulfstream Park, broke alertly and withstood an early pace duel to register a game head decision over True Love's Secret in the $40,000 Reappeal Stakes at Calder.
Placido battled through a 21.31-second opening quarter with Sam's Concorde and disposed of that rival leaving the backstretch. He settled into the stretch with a clear advantage after a 43.85 half-mile split and was all out to withstand True Love's Secret.
Happy Ticket ran her career record to a perfect 8 for 8 with an impressive 6 1/4-length win in the Suthern Accent Stakes at Louisiana Downs. Pacesetter Southern Surprise narrowly held off Red Lifesaver for the place while Baileys Affair finished fourth.
It wasn't exactly the way a 3-5 shot is supposed to win, but My Typhoon got the job done with a two-length victory in the $75,000 Hilltop Breeders' Cup at Pimlico.
My Typhoon, under Jerry Bailey, wore down pacesetter Flashy Three in midstretch and despite racing greenly earned her first stakes victory in the 1 1/16-mile turf race. Flashy Three held on for second, 1 3/4 lengths in front of third-place finisher Rutledge Ballado in the field of seven 3-year-old fillies.
