OCEANPORT, N.J. - A favorable bias and the hottest stakes rider at the meet combined to help Follow Me Home win the $50,000 Crank It Up Stakes Saturday afternoon at Monmouth Park.
While Joe Bravo leads in overall wins, nobody comes close to Julian Pimentel with the big money on the line. The Crank It Up for 3-year-old fillies gave him four stakes wins at this early stage of the meet.
Pimentel bagged his latest stakes victory by playing an overwhelming speed bias to perfection.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Heavily favored Nashinda annihilated her four opponents in the five-furlong My Dear Stakes, winning by five lengths without any urging from jockey David Clark.
Nashinda emerged from a four-way scramble for the early lead to take control on the turn, then drew off in the stretch to cover the distance in 58.12 seconds. Mrs. Mistofelees rallied for second, while Molly's Gone ended up third. Maple Syrple and Solar Sail were scratched.
MIAMI - Showmeitall was considered one of the top 3-year-old sprinters in the country after he won Gulfstream Park's Hutcheson Stakes during the winter of 2002. Little did anyone suspect that the Grade 2 victory would be the last time Showmeitall would visit the winner's circle in the next 17 months.
On Monday at Calder Race Course, Showmeitall makes his long-awaited 2003 debut - with a $40,000 price tag on his head. He will face seven rivals going six furlongs under third-level optional claiming and allowance conditions.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Out of My Way couldn't win a race last year. Now, he can't lose.
After going 0 for 7 in his 2002 campaign, Out of My Way has climbed to the best form of his career this season. Saturday, he won his third consecutive start with a stakes record-setting victory in the $84,150 White Oak Handicap.
Out of My Way won the Springfield Stakes during the Prairie State Festival in 2000, and missed by less than a length a year later in the White Oak, but after his disappointing season last year, the 6-year-old Out of My Way seemed to have lost a step.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - It was a nose decision. Edgar Prado won a photo for show in the final race to capture the National Thoroughbred Racing Association All-Star Jockey Championship by a point from Shane Sellers.
The four-race competition, which annually matches 12 of the nation's top riders, was held for the seventh time Friday night at Lone Star Park.
Prado, who became the first two-time winner of the event, scored 22 points over the four races while Sellers earned 21. Jose Santos finished third with 15.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - There were almost as many late defections from Sunday's $100,000 Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood Park as there are entrants.
Late in the week, there were six probables for the race, but only four were entered on Friday. Blazonry, the winner of the Laz Barrera Memorial Stakes on May 26, is reportedly ill, while Chief Planner, the winner of the Snow Chief Stakes on April 26, has developed a quarter crack, according to trainer Bob Baffert.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Last weekend's turf stakes at Belmont Park, the Hill Prince and Sands Point, were run on the main track, and there is every indication that Sunday's $100,000-added Mount Vernon Handicap, scheduled for turf, will be run on dirt.
There has been no turf racing at Belmont since June 11 because of soggy course conditions. Heavy rain was forecast for the weekend.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Rob VanOverschot will try to accomplish something no trainer in British Columbia has ever done when he saddles Illusive Force in the
$1 million Queen's Plate this Sunday. If he's successful, Illusive Force would become the first British Columbia-bred horse to win the Plate.
It's a daunting task. Three-year-olds at Hastings are typically pointed toward the B.C. Derby, which usually runs in September, and at this point in the season, most of them haven't even gone beyond 6 1/2 furlongs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Rockfield, who had been entered in Sunday's Queen's Plate at Woodbine, was euthanized following an accident during training hours there Friday morning.
"He was feeling good coming on to the track," said Alec Fehr, who trained Rockfield for the Knob Hill Stable of Steve Stavro. "He bucked a couple of times, dropped his rider, and ran away. He got his bridle caught up, hit the railing and broke his leg."
ELMONT, N.Y. - Belmont Park will replace Aqueduct as the New York City area site of Saratoga simulcasts for the upcoming meet, which opens July 23 and runs through Sept. 1.
Because of major construction relating to the installation of 4,500 video lottery terminals at Aqueduct, the simulcasts were moved to Belmont.
