CHICAGO - Summer Mis's crowning achievement was a win last fall in the Grade 3 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes, but after finishing last of six in the Sunday at Keeneland, Summer Mis's racing career is over.
There is nothing particularly amiss with her, but it seems clear to Summer Mis's connections, owner Richard Otto and trainer Tony Mitchell, that she has lost her spark.
"That race told me she'd had enough," Mitchell said Monday morning. "She's going to go off and be a broodmare."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - About 90 owners with Sea Wolf Stable turned out Saturday to cheer for their first-time starter, Seawolf.
For many of the investors, Saturday was their first trip to a racetrack, and a good time was seemingly had by all, even though Seawolf bled and finished seventh, avoiding last by a neck.
The Sea Wolf Stable was started by Russ Gardiner, an assistant athletic director at Sonoma State, a Division II school in Rhonert Park, just south of Santa Rosa. The school's mascot is a sea wolf.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Toll Taker rallied sharply from off the pace to blow past Summer Raven and Im a Dixie Girl in upper stretch for a 3 1/4-length victory in Sunday's Grade 3, $108,000 for juvenile fillies at Belmont Park.
Im a Dixie Girl, the 8-5 favorite, contested the early pace and held for second, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Summer Raven, who looked poised to take control at the top of the stretch but offered no late punch.
The filly Slim Justice rallied from more than 12 lengths off the pace in the stretch, while Unforgotten Promise never trailed in the two divisions of the $40,000 Hoosier Silver Cup Stakes for 2-year-olds at Hoosier Park.
With Lester Knight aboard, Slim Justice ($9.40) took the fillies division by a length after a long stretch run to win her maiden in her fifth career start.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The first time Slew's Saga stepped onto the turf, he got loose after unseating his rider, Steven Bahen, and proceeded to take a couple of unsupervised turns around the training course.
Sunday, the second time he tried the grass, Slew's Saga got loose again.
But this time the location was the E.P. Taylor turf course and the occasion was the $250,000 , a 1 1/16-mile race for Canadian-bred 2-year-olds in which Slew's Saga romped to a 9 3/4-length victory with Bahen firmly ensconced in the irons.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Rafael Bejarano captured his fifth stakes of the eight-day-old Keeneland fall meet Sunday when Molto Vita, racing on just six days of rest, sped to victory in the Grade 3, $125,000 .
Molto Vita broke the sharpest among the six fillies and mares in the six-furlong TCA Stakes, forcing all the pace from a comfortable outside position before drawing off to a lead big enough to withstand a late run from favored My Trusty Gal, who finished three-quarters of a length behind the winner.
Trainer Jim McCoy swept both divisions of the Kansas Thoroughbred Futurity at the Woodlands on Sunday, but he shared the victory in the colts and geldings division with trainer Jeff Rutland.
The trainers's colts finished in a dead heat for the win in the in the five and a half furlong race for 2-year-olds bred in Kansas, with the McCoy-trained Scarlet Jeff closing through the stretch to finish on even terms with the Rutland-trained Makeyourheadspin. The colts finished a neck in front of C'mon Creed.
The Niner Account and his trainer, Martin Lozano, won their first stakes race Sunday when The Niner Account drove clear by two and a quarter lengths in the $40,000 Brother Brown at Remington Park.
Silver Phone closed late for second, finishing a length and a quarter clear of third-place finisher April's Lucky Boy.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Maybe Greek Sun should be based only in California. After all, the 3-year-old colt is unbeaten in four starts at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, with his two losses occurring this summer at Arlington Park and Belmont Park.
The latest success came in Sunday's $150,000 at Santa Anita. Greek Sun rallied from eighth on the backstretch to score by three-quarters of a length over Laura's Lucky Boy. Hendrix, sent off at 56-1, finished third in the field of nine.
FRESNO, Calif. - An unseasonably heavy rain forced cancellation of the final day of the Big Fresno Fair on Sunday.
Director of racing Dan White met with horsemen, jockeys and stewards early in the morning. The decision was made at 10 a.m. The decision meant that three stakes races, one for mules, one for quarter horses and the $50,000 Bull Dog for thoroughbreds were not run.
The $3,814 pick-six carryover, which had to be paid out, will be placed in a special interest-earning account and will be used as a carryover on the opening day of the 2005 meet.
