Sat, 09/28/2002 - 00:00

Moonlight Sonata pays $122.60!

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - A maiden Saturday morning, Moonlight Sonata was a stakes-winner before nightfall, lighting up the tote board with an improbable win in the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Lassie on Saturday at Arlington Park.

Sat, 09/28/2002 - 00:00

Regal Sanction upsets Pegasus

Regal Sanction took the lead from This Guns for Hire in midstretch and dug in to hold off the fast-closing No Parole to win the Grade 2, $350,000 Pegasus Handicap by a head Friday night at The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

Trained by James Jerkens, Regal Sanction entered the race with only 1 win and 6 seconds in 11 lifetime starts. He was sent off as the fifth choice, at 6-1, in the field of six 3-year-olds.

Sat, 09/28/2002 - 00:00

Condellone highlights Illinois Day

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - The second edition of Illinois Day, comprising six $35,000-added stakes, marks the high point of Fairmount Park's racing season.

The Pete Condellone Handicap, a one-mile race for older males, is the best race of the day, but it will be missing last year's winner, Tic N Tin, who ran in an overnight handicap at Arlington Friday, finishing third. In the Condellone, local horses Crack the Vault, Silver Bid, Moe B Dick, and Multiple Metal will be bracing for an invasion from Chicagoan Baker Road.

Sat, 09/28/2002 - 00:00

Gaby G eyes another

MIAMI - Gaby G had gone 11 starts and nearly 10 months between victories before her three-length triumph on Sept. 7. On Monday, she should waste little time winning another when she faces eight other fillies and mares in the $32,000 allowance feature at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Sat, 09/28/2002 - 00:00

Woodbine: Mulrainy pulls upset

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mulrainy ($18.50) overhauled Winning Chance in deep stretch to capture the $184,375 La Lorgnette Stakes for 3-year-old fillies Saturday.

Mulrainy stalked the pace in the 1 1/16-mile race, as Jealous Forum set quick fractions of 22.53 and 45.58 seconds. Winning Chance got through along the rail at the quarter pole, and opened up a clear lead in the stretch, but Mulrainy wore her down to prevail by a neck in 1:44.04.

Lady Shari rallied inside to end up third in the seven-horse race, which had four scratches. Favored Brass in Pocket was a fading sixth.

Sat, 09/28/2002 - 00:00

Calder: Stay Forever passes test

MIAMI - Stay Forever passed her first class check with flying colors when she rallied from off a slow pace for a three-length victory over Pembroke Palace in Saturday's $50,000 Noble Royalty Handicap.

Stay Forever had won three of her first four career starts, all against allowance company, before making her stakes debut in the 1 1/16-mile Noble Royalty. Allowed to settle off the pace of Crimson Native, Stay Forever commenced her bid from between horses in the stretch and burst by the leaders leaving the sixteenth pole.

Sat, 09/28/2002 - 00:00

Crafty Shaw won't be denied

Crafty Shaw overcame traffic trouble at the start and a five-wide trip on the first turn to win the Grade 3, $100,000 Turfway Park Fall Championship by three lengths. Rock Slide, the midstretch leader, held second by 1 1/4 lengths over Deferred Comp, who ran third in the 1 1/8-mile race. First Lieutenant, the 2-1 favorite, finished fifth in the field of seven 3-year-olds and up at the Florence, Ky., racetrack.

Sat, 09/28/2002 - 00:00

Banks Hill scratched from Flower Bowl

ELMONT, N.Y. - As expected, defending champion turf filly Banks Hill was scratched out of Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Flower Bowl Invitational due to the soft condition of the Belmont Park turf course.

Dr. John Chandler, president of Juddmonte Farms, scratched Banks Hill after being advised by fellow European trainer Paul Webber the condition of the course. Webber is here to run Ulundi in Sunday's Turf Classic Invitational.

"We were quite keen to run, but Paul Webber walked the course and advised us it was soft," Fabre said from France.

Fri, 09/27/2002 - 00:00

With Anticipation seeks 4th in row

Horsephotos
With Anticipation shoots for his fourth straight Grade 1 win in Sunday's $750,000 Turf Classic at Belmont.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Around trainer Jonathan Sheppard's barn, With Anticipation is referred to as gray boy or the white horse. On the racetrack, a more apt name for the 7-year-old gelding is win-machine.

On Sunday at Belmont Park, With Anticipation shoots for his fourth consecutive Grade 1 victory in the $750,000 Turf Classic Invitational after having captured the United Nations at Monmouth, the Sword Dancer at Saratoga, and the Man o' War at Belmont.

Fri, 09/27/2002 - 00:00

Macho Uno a shaky favorite

CHICAGO - He has teased us with flashes of brilliance. A nose victory over Point Given, winner of the 2001 Preakness and Belmont Stakes, in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile. A burst of startling acceleration when he won this year's Massachusetts Handicap. But even though Macho Uno has never run a bad race, layoffs and surprising losses have dogged his career, and in two years since the Juvenile he has won graded stakes only twice.