Jockey Victor Molina claimed he wasn't worried when Abderian still was lagging behind in seventh place with only a quarter-mile remaining in the five-furlong Turf Monster.
"I know at this track, the turf turns are very tight," Molina said. "Especially in the turf sprints, the speed horses can have trouble making those turns. That's what happened. The whole inside opened up for me and set up perfectly."
Despite drifting twice in the stretch after gaining command, Gin and Sin ($4.60) hung on to defeat Doc D by a neck in the $75,000 Memorial Day Handicap.
In the co-featured Decoration Day Handicap for fillies and mares, Salzurita ($5.80) cruised to a 2 1/2-length victory.
Both races were contested at one mile over the muddy main track after being originally scheduled for 7 1/2 furlongs on turf.
He Loves Me ($2.80), the overwhelming favorite when the race was moved from the turf to the main track, earned her third stakes victory of the year in the $75,000 Pearl Necklace Stakes for 3-year-old Maryland-bred fillies.
The maiden Hi Five Raven finished 1 1/2 lengths behind in second at 64-1 to complete a $156.60 exacta and trigger a $772.80 trifecta.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Nearly two years to the day after he suffered a career-threatening injury, Designed for Luck scored the most important win of his troubled career in Monday's $470,000 Shoemaker Breeders' Cup Mile at Hollywood Park.
Always near the front under Patrick Valenzuela, Designed for Luck ($13.80) finished a mile on turf in 1:32.81, narrowly missing Megan's Interco's 1994 track record of 1:32.64.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Despite sending his horse 3,000 miles to run in what he called "the toughest race this year so far," trainer Paulo Lobo was very confident in Pico Central's chances to win the $750,000 .
"I was very confident," Lobo said, "because, he is a great horse."
ELMONT, N.Y. - A year ago, trainer Christophe Clement won the Sheepshead Bay with Mariensky and ran her back one week later, when she won the Just a Game Breeders' Cup Handicap on Belmont Stakes Day.
Clement will make a similar move this Saturday, when he is expected to wheel Dedication, runner-up in Sunday's Jaipur Handicap, back in Saturday's Grade 2, $250,000 Just a Game Breeders' Cup Handicap.
Belmont Park has sold all of its 30,500 reserved-seat tickets for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, when Smarty Jones will attempt to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978. Some of those seats, however, may have been sold more than once.
On dozens of online ticket-broker sites, and on the popular Internet auction site eBay, hundreds of tickets to the Belmont are being offered for sale, and many are being priced well above statutory limits in New York on resold tickets.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The trainer Angel Medina was standing under a multicolored umbrella in the Arlington paddock on Monday afternoon. He had just put a saddle on a 2-year-old named Tepexpan, and was in the process of explaining the decision to send a colt named Caiman from Chicago to the Belmont Stakes. And as Medina, a native of Venezuela, dodged raindrops and talked, the crazy plan almost took on a semblance of sense.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Trainer Mike Weissman hails from a part of Chicago, the far southwest side, not known for gentility. They have in those parts a noteworthy cheeseburger called the Big Baby. Air traffic to and from Midway airport rumbles overhead. Conversational strategy doesn't include the mincing of words.
Asked if a colt named Persuaggle was the best horse in his barn, Weissman replied: "The best horse? We'll say he's the only horse over there."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Noches de Rosa was expected to be the pacesetter among the four fillies and mares in Monday's $324,250 Gamely Breeders' Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park. But the prerace strategy did not include losing the lead on the backstretch and having to fight back through the stretch to hold off the 3-5 favorite Megahertz.
Noches de Rosa ($8.60) scored the most important win of her U.S. career in the Grade 1 Gamely Handicap. Ridden by Mike Smith, Noches de Rosa finished 1 1/8 miles on turf in 1:48.34.