Special things continue to happen for John Velazquez at Saratoga.
Velazquez recorded his 3,000th career victory on Thursday, guiding Runingforpresident to a 3 3/4-length victory in Saratoga's second race. In 2001, Velazquez became the first jockey to win six races on one Saratoga card. Last year, Velazquez set a Spa record with 61 wins.
Senor Fango, who needed five races to win his maiden and failed to finish a race in May, won his stakes debut in Wednesday's $125,000 Graduation Stakes at Del Mar.
Sent off as a lukewarm 5-2 favorite, Senor Fango rallied from third under Kerwin John to outfinish the pacesetter, Fallfree. The victory gave Senor Fango's trainer and co-owner, Jerry Dutton, his second stakes win of the meeting, a week after Wild Babe won a division of the Oceanside Stakes on July 21.
Senor Fango ($7) finished 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:04.90.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Fancy As will take another step on the comeback trail when he faces
five adversaries in Saturday's 1 1/16-mile Klondike Handicap at Northlands. The $40,000 Klondike, for 3-year-olds and upward, will ring down the curtain on Klondike Days.
But racing will continue through the long weekend, with the 6 1/2-furlong Princess Margaret for 2-year-old fillies Sunday and the 6 1/2-furlong Sun Sprint Championship for 3-year-olds and upward Monday.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A couple of win machines, Dancewithavictor and Buckeye Bates, will square off in the best race at Hastings Saturday, a $25,000 claiming sprint for 3-year-olds and up that drew six horses. It goes as the first race.
Dancewithavictor will likely be a short-priced favorite. A son of Vying Victor, he has won four of his last five starts and is coming off of a front-running 1 1/4-length win over Kompressor Jack in a $35,000 optional race July 3.
AUBURN, Wash. - Flamethrowintexan will make his Emerald Downs debut on Saturday when he takes on nine other 3-year-olds in the $65,000 Seattle Slew Breeders' Cup Handicap at 1 1/16 miles.
Flamethrowintexan, a Florida-bred son of Way West and Willalady, by Citidancer, was claimed by owner Paul Heist out of his last start, a win against $62,500 rivals at Hollywood Park June 24. Heist sent him to the barn of local trainer Jim Penney early this month, and Flamethrowintexan has since logged four works in preparation for the Seattle Slew, his first start around two turns.
MIAMI - To say the local sprint division hasn't changed much over the years would be an understatement. A perfect case in point is Saturday's $75,000 Groomstick Handicap at Calder, which brings together three of its last four winners, including likely favorite and defending champion Built Up.
Built Up rallied to defeat Swift Replica by a neck to win the 2003 Groomstick. Swift Replica will also return on Saturday - along with Dancing Guy, winner of the inaugural Groomstick in 2000, and Tour of the Cat, who outfinished Built Up to win the race in 2002.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Buddy Gil tries to win his first stakes since the 2003 Santa Anita Derby in Saturday's $75,000 Wickerr Handicap at Del Mar, a race that trainer Jeff Mullins hopes will revive Buddy Gil's career.
Mullins considers the Wickerr, run over a mile on turf, a chance to reacquaint Buddy Gil with a surface on which he has already succeeded.
Before he became a Kentucky Derby candidate in 2003, Buddy Gil won the Grade 3 Baldwin Stakes at 26-1 on the Santa Anita hillside turf course in February 2003. The race remains his only start on the surface.
CHICAGO - Anne Mitchell, a small-time, hands-on trainer, came here from Ohio in the summer of 2001 with a nice 2-year-old filly named Desert Sage, who won an allowance race, but was not good enough for the Arlington-Washington Lassie.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - If it weren't for bad luck, as the old saying goes, My Captain would have no luck at all.
My Captain - preparing to defend his championship in Saturday's $40,000-added Ernest Finley at the Sonoma County Fair - has surely had his run of bad luck continue in 2004.
But for Steve Sherman, who has made My Captain one of his special projects as the assistant trainer to his father, Art, the fact that My Captain will be racing in the Ernest Finley is good news.
In each of her last eight starts at Charles Town, 4-year-old filly Fancy Buckles has been heavily favored, including six times at less than even money. She rarely disappointed, winning six times during that span at distances ranging from 4 1/2 to seven furlongs.
Fancy Buckles figures to take heavy action again in the $75,000 Sadie Hawkins Handicap, a seven-furlong race for West Virginia-bred fillies and mares.
Part of a three-horse entry for trainer Tim Grams, Fancy Buckles is 8 for 11 lifetime at Charles Town, where she has never finished worse than third.