NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Jeff Trosclair said he was just "taking a shot" with Skate Away in Saturday's at Fair Grounds. It turns out Skate Away fit the race just fine. With heavily favored Better Talk Now backing out of the Woodchopper in upper stretch, Skate Away made a clear lead in midstretch and held off a late rally from Seainsky to win by a neck.
"I guess he could step up one day and be a really nice horse," Trosclair said. "Or this might have been the pinnacle. I don't really know yet."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It's three and counting for Coyote Lakes.
Under Mike Luzzi, Coyote Lakes wore down the pace-setting tandem of Fisher Pond and Pleasant Breeze to win his third consecutive , this time by 1 3/4 lengths before 5,740 at Aqueduct. Pleasant Breeze nosed out Fisher Pond - a slight favorite over Coyote Lakes - for second in the 1 5/8-mile race.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The opening week of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting has been very kind to ex-claimers trying stakes.
On Thursday, Debonair Joe won the $200,000 Malibu Stakes after being claimed for $12,500 at Fairplex Park on September 20.
On Friday, Pocketfullofpesos, claimed for $40,000 at Hollywood Park on Nov. 9, won her third consecutive race in the fillies division of the $125,000 California Breeders' Champion Stakes.
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - Sunday's $100,000 Riley Allison Futurity at 6 1/2 furlongs is the first leg of a three-race series that offers a $250,000 bonus to any horse that can sweep it.
The series continues on March 31 with the $500,000 WinStar Derby at Sunland and ends with the $500,000 Lone Star Derby at Lone Star Park May 10.
Trainer Steve Asmussen, who through Thursday had 394 wins this year, leaving him one behind Scott Lake for the national title, has entered Irish Boots in the Allison.
NEW ORLEANS - In a Nov. 30 allowance race at Churchill Downs, Saintly Look looked like a horse that had started to learn his lesson. In his first two starts, Saintly Look ran like many unseasoned 2-year-olds, leaving the gate in high gear and going as fast as he could for as far as he could, but on Nov. 30 the colt raced with greater understanding. Settling off a fast early pace, Saintly Look did his running on the turn and in the stretch, missing victory by a neck in a solid 10-horse field.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It ended ugly for the team of trainer Bobby Frankel and jockey Kent Desormeaux. After they had a run of luck in 2002 that included $3.8 million in earnings, a 25 percent win rate, and 28 wins from 110 starts, a nightmare trip by Decarchy in the Grade 2 Citation Handicap Nov. 30 was the final straw.
Frankel blamed Desormeaux for the loss - Decarchy finished fourth in the $500,000 race - and fired the jockey. "I thought he couldn't lose, I thought [Desormeaux] could have laid up a little closer," Frankel said. "We haven't been lucky."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Because of the Christmas Day storm that brought rain, sleet, and six inches of snow to Aqueduct, forcing the cancellation of Thursday's races, there will be a stakes doubleheader at the Big A on Sunday.
The regularly scheduled Alex M. Robb Handicap for New York-breds will be the eighth race, and the re-drawn Gravesend Handicap goes as the ninth race on a 10-race card.
The Grade 3 Gravesend, which was to have been run on Thursday, originally drew a field of nine, but only eight older sprinters entered when the six-furlong race was redrawn on Friday.
NEW ORLEANS - Even after four seasons Histoire Sainte's love affair with the Fair Grounds grass course hasn't dimmed. In four races here she never has been beaten, and in Friday's Furl Sail Handicap - on the eve of her seventh birthday - she easily out-kicked the heavy favorite, Quick Tip, under a perfect trip from Shane Sellers.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After a delay of 37 minutes between the sixth and seventh races because of a tractor stalling on the track, Friday's ninth race at Aqueduct was canceled because of darkness.
The tractor was working the track after the sixth race when a hydraulic line broke and the tractor ran out of oil, said NYRA equipment supervisor Rich Sciortino. The tractor stopped on the backstretch, near the half-mile pole.