INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The ex-claimer Debonair Joe produced a string of milestones with his upset victory in Saturday's $100,000 Vernon O. Underwood Stakes at Hollywood Park.
The longest shot in the field of nine, the 3-year-old Debonair Joe ($107.60) gave Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone the first stakes win of her five-week comeback and gave 25-year-old trainer Juan Pablo Silva the first stakes win of his career. Krone returned to riding in early November, following a break of 2 1-2 years.
HOUSTON - Continental Red survived a stewards' inquiry after surging past Pass Rush to win the $210,500 , giving California-breds their second victory in the inaugural six-race series run Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park.
Continental Red, ridden by Pat Valenzuela, stalked the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Classic before finally getting past front-running Pass Rush by a length in the final yards. In midstretch, Continental Red had bumped soundly with eventual third-place finisher Pickupspeed, but the Sam Houston stewards ruled the incident was not enough to warrant a disqualification.
MIAMI - Wander Mom, who had been narrowly beaten on several occasions over the past two seasons in her quest for a graded stakes victory, finally got the job done when she outlasted Strawberry Blonde and eight other older fillies and mares in the Grade 3 My Charmer Handicap at Calder.
The My Charmer was one of four stakes races, each worth $100,000, on Saturday's Grand Slam I program at Calder.
MIAMI - It's rare to find a two-turn handicap on the dirt for fillies and mares at Calder without Coolbythepool or Castlebrook in the lineup. But that will be the case on Monday when eight 3- and 4-year-old fillies seek to capitalize on the absence of the two division leaders in the $40,000 Express Star Handicap.
MIAMI - Eibar Coa completed a memorable afternoon when he guided Krieger to a gate-to-wire, one-length decision over Stokosky in the $100,000 Tropical Turf Handicap for his fifth winner and third stakes victory of the day.
Coa also won the $100,000 My Charmer Handicap aboard Wander Mom and the $100,000 Kenny Noe Jr. Handicap on Built Up.
HOUSTON - Just nine days after she finished second in the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs, Take Charge Lady rebounded with an easy 3 1/2-length win over Mystic Lady in the $206,000 Great State Challenge Distaff, one of six divisional races on an all-stakes card at Sam Houston Race Park on Saturday.
HOUSTON - Horatio Karamanos could wait no longer. Leaving the half-mile pole, Karamanos, riding La Reine's Terms, dared to go eyeball-to-eyeball alongside heavily favored Forbidden Apple in the $262,000 Great State Challenge Turf, something that normally would spell defeat for most horses.
NEW ORLEANS - Leslie's Love won her first stakes race, holding off Lady of Peace by a neck Saturday at Fair Grounds in the $60,000 Dr. A.B. Leggio Memorial Handicap.
A former claiming horse, Leslie's Love gave jockey Shane Sellers his first stakes win of a comeback that started in November, and longtime Fair Grounds trainer Connie Tassistro his first local stakes victory since 1996.
Leslie's Love was timed in 1:04.61 for 5 1/2 furlongs over firm turf, and paid $12.60 to win.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Snake Mountain got a perfect trip winning last month's Stuyvesant Handicap. Now make it two perfect trips in a row.
Snake Mountain, under Jose Santos, captured the Grade 3 Queens County Handicap on Saturday by 1 1/4 lengths, but he won more comfortably than that margin might suggest.
NEW ORLEANS - A mystique surrounds the buying and training of racehorses, where instincts and an eye for talent are prized.
But Soto's powerful rally that won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Nov. 30 struck a blow for hard science. Long before Soto's first race, sophisticated assessments of his heart and breathing stamped him as a valued racing prospect. The scientific method led a German baron's family to buy Soto last winter, and it has helped turn Soto into an undefeated Kentucky Derby hopeful.
