ARCADIA, Calif. - A two-day pick-six carryover of $456,253 highlights a moderate program at Santa Anita on Wednesday.
The eight-race program includes only one 10-horse field and is led by a $65,000 allowance race designed as a replacement for the Lure Stakes, which failed to draw sufficient entries on Sunday.
Wednesday's pick six covers the third through eighth races. Three races are on turf, two are for maiden claimers, and one is a maiden special weight over 1 1/16 miles.
CHICAGO - It was cold and getting colder here Monday afternoon. Around the corner is a long, dark winter - King Cielo's time of year.
King Cielo thrived on the hard, frozen tracks at Hawthorne last winter, winning by almost 10 lengths in one December race, and finishing second to the crack sprinter Talknow in another. Claimed for $50,000 in June by Susan and Walter Kotzman, and now trained by Jan Ely, King Cielo has been campaigned judiciously and comes into Wednesday's featured seventh race here after a two-month freshening, ready for another winter.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Please Take Me Out controlled the pace through comfortable fractions and hung on for a narrow win in the $84,400 Miss Grillo, the closing-day stakes of Belmont Park's 38-day fall meet.
Please Take Me Out, with Aaron Gryder aboard, was a head winner over Bobbie Use in the Miss Grillo for 2-year-old fillies. It was another length back to Lucifer's Stone in third in the 1 1/8-mile turf race. The favorite, Saree, finished sixth in the nine-horse field.
Please Take Me Out ($28) covered the distance in 1:50.75 over a firm course.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Omitted from the Breeders' Cup Mile when the race oversubscribed, Pie N Burger won his first stakes in California in the $150,000 Seabiscuit Handicap, after the Breeders' Cup races had been run.
Ridden by Pat Valenzuela, Pie N Burger stalked pacesetter Excess Summer to early stretch, took the lead before the eighth pole, and won by a length over Chinkapin. Redattore finished third in the field of 11. Fleetstreet Dancer, the 5-2 favorite, finished sixth.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Vallarta ($27.80) caught a paceless field, set easy fractions and scored an easy three-length victory in the $68,200 at Bay Meadows on Sunday.
Vallarta, coming off a victory in a $50,000 optional claiming race, made it 3-for-3 over the Longden Turf Course, beating multiple graded stakes winner Ninebanks by three lengths. The winning time was 1:42.30 for 1 1/16 miles.
Aly Bubba edged Surprise Halo for third, one length behind Ninebanks.
Bayakoa's Image defended her title in the $35,000 Black Mesa at Remington Park on Saturday when she turned in a dominating, nine and a half length win over Devout Sinner in the seven furlong race for fillies and mares bred in Oklahoma.
It was another two lengths back in third to Racing Sundown.
Bayakoa's Image($7.20) withstood some early pace pressure from Racing Sundown, then drew out through the stretch, covering the distance in 1:23.92. The win came on the heels of her more than eight length romp in the $35,000 Oklahoma Classics Day Distaff in September.
Academic Angel overtook pacesetter She's The Future into the stretch and powered home to a five and a half length win in the $35,000 Jiffy Lube at Sam Houston Race Park on Saturday night. Scheduled for turf, the race was moved to a muddy main track because of rains in the area. It was another eight lengths back in third to Won Ton Win.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Richard Mandella hopes it doesn't take 10 years for the Breeders' Cup to return to Santa Anita.
In 1993, the last time the Breeders' Cup was held here, Mandella won two Breeders' Cup races and four overall on the card. Saturday, Mandella trumped that accomplishment by winning four of the eight Breeders' Cup races at Santa Anita, capped by an upset victory by Pleasantly Perfect ($30.40) in the $4 million Classic.
"I think they just ought to move it here, myself," Mandella said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It was almost impossible. It was too easy. From wagers such as the Breeders' Cup pick six and future wager, to head-to-head wagering that requires nothing more than one horse finishing ahead of another, Breeders' Cup 2003 offered something for everyone.
Horseplayers poured $4,489,454 into the Breeders' Cup pick six pool, and a series of upsets sliced things down to just one winning ticket. It returned $2,687,611.60. Five winners paid $18,663.80.
The winning payoffs were much shorter in head-to-head wagering.