DEL MAR, Calif. - When word got out Friday morning at Del Mar that Tates Creek was going to pass Sunday's Grade 2, $200,000 Palomar Breeders' Cup Handicap, there was much rejoicing. Maybe not in the racing office, but certainly among the trainers of the remaining runners.
"Good," said Jeff Mullins, who will send out the tiny but mighty Garden in the Rain. "It's hard once you've blown all your conditions to find easy races."
ELMONT, N.Y. - Well Fancied swept by Gratiaen in midstretch to win Friday's $109,600 General Douglas MacArthur Handicap, the opening-day feature of the Belmont fall meet, by 5 1/2 lengths.
A crowd of 5,475 attended the 38-day meet's first day of racing, which was conducted in ideal weather.
Well Fancied, the 2-5 favorite ridden by Edgar Prado, won the MacArthur for the second year in a row.
Woodbine Entertainment Group has announced a 3 percent across-the-board cut in purses for Thoroughbred racing effective Sept. 10.
The decrease means the average purse will be $47,550, down from $49,000. The adjustment does not affect stakes races, which will remain at current levels.
"After a number of years of wagering growth, our Thoroughbred wagering appears to have softened and leveled out in 2003," said Hugh Mitchell, Woodbine's senior vice president of racing, in a press release Friday.
Frank Amonte celebrated his 68th birthday stylishly at the Three County Fair in Northampton, Mass., by becoming one of the oldest jockeys to ever win a recognized Thoroughbred race, aboard It's a New Moon in Friday's seventh race.
Amonte and his mount surged late to nip Frank's Green Money, giving Amonte his first victory since winning at last year's fair. Amonte also trains three horses based at Suffolk Downs.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Perfect Moon, the winner of two graded stakes this summer and a top contender for Wednesday's $250,000 Del Mar Futurity, was sold on Friday to Royce Jaime. After the sale, Perfect Moon was transferred from trainer Mel Stute to Doug O'Neill.
The deal was finalized early Friday morning after three days of negotiations and veterinary examinations. The sale price was not revealed, but O'Neill said it was in the "mid-six figures."
Perfect Moon won 3 of 7 starts and $183,870 racing for The Hat Ranch and Stute's wife, Annabelle.
CHICAGO - Hackendiffy may have gone a bridge too far this summer. He ran his heart out in the July 5 Ohio Derby, finishing second behind Wild and Wicked and beating Midway Road. It was the last, and perhaps the best, in a three-race skein of "A" races, and it may have been too much for Hackendiffy.
Two weeks later, facing the same kind of Ohio-breds he had trampled for two seasons, Hackendiffy finished a distant sixth.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Recent stakes winners Alpha Saphire and Heyahohowdy meet in Sunday's $109,000 Flaming Page Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for fillies and mares.
The other stakes race scheduled for Sunday at Woodbine, the Wilderness Song for 3-year-old fillies, was scrapped when it attracted just three entries.
AUBURN, Wash. - Angie's Legacy will attempt to remain undefeated at a mile on Sunday, when she takes on five other 3-year-old fillies in a $50,000 optional claiming race at Emerald Downs.
Angie's Legacy, a daughter of Jumron and Angie's Dream, woke up went sent a mile for the first time against $10,000 maidens on July 3, winning off by more than seven lengths in 1:37.60. Jumped to the $16,000 level in her first try against winners on July 31, Angie's Legacy proved an easy 4 1/2-length winner while improving her mile time to 1:36.40.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Jiffyjimmygee is eyeing another big payoff in the Sales Stakes series at Northlands Park that has been expanded this year to include 3-year-olds.
Jiffyjimmygee, trained by Floyd Arthur, will try to follow up on his Sales Stakes victory as a 2-year-old. He will face six rivals from post 2 in the inaugural $50,000 Sale Stakes at one mile for male 3-year-olds.