BOSSIER CITY, La. - Just Scarlet caught pacesetter Distinctive Code at the wire to win the $50,000 Chapel Belle Stakes by a head at Louisiana Downs on Saturday. It was another length back in third to Sheza Nasty Lady.
Just Scarlet($32.20) settled about eight lengths behind Distinctive Code, who led the field through fractions of 47.69 for the opening half mile and 1:11.48 for six furlongs while pushed along by Very Geri.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. ? Sempai ($6.40) was allowed an uncontested lead and romped to a three-length victory in the $50,770 Ernest Finley Handicap on Saturday at the Sonoma County Fair.
Compromised by a hot pace duel with Fight For Silver in his previous start in the Sam J. Whiting Handicap on June 29 at Pleasanton, Sempai immediately opened a daylight advantage as Fight For Silver was unable to match his 22.06 opening quarter. Sempai won the six-furlong race over late-closing favorite Profound Secret in 1:08.22.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The vastly improved Disturbingthepeace won his fifth straight race when he outdueled Freespool in Saturday's $169,000 Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup Handicap at Del Mar, a Grade 2 race that lost much of its luster when Kona Gold, the defending race champion and morning-line favorite, was withdrawn.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Bobby Frankel picked up right where he left off last year at Saratoga, sweeping Saturday's Grade 1 Test Stakes with You and Grade 2 Diana with Tates Creek in two heart-palpitating races.
Last year, Frankel won six graded stakes at Saratoga, including three Grade 1's.
One hour after Tates Creek won a head bob over Voodoo Dancer, things got even tighter when You slivered through a narrow opening along the rail and outlasted pace-setting Carson Hollow to win the $250,000 Test by a nostril.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Falcon Flight and trainer Donald Burke should never leave Arlington.
Burke won the second race of his training career when Falcon Flight flew through the final furlong of Saturday's Grade 3, $225,000 Arlington Handicap to beat Kappa King by a neck.
It was Falcon Flight's first win since he took the Stars and Stripes Handicap here last July, Burke's first win as a trainer. Falcon Flight had raced only twice since then and was making his first start since last September.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Monday's $100,000 Lake George Stakes drew a well-balanced field of 11, with no real standout. Add to the equation an unsettled forecast and outside posts for a couple of the major contenders, and the Grade 3 turf race becomes a difficult problem for handicappers to solve.
The usual suspects - trainers Bobby Frankel, Bill Mott, and Christophe Clement - entered horses in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies. Perhaps, the Elliott Walden-trained Guana could offer value.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Kona Gold was scratched from Saturday's $200,000 Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup Handicap at Del Mar after co-owner Irwin Molasky and trainer Bruce Headley said they were unsatisfied with the 124-pound weight assignment.
A winner of 13 of 25 starts and $2.1 million, Kona Gold was the 7-5 morning-line favorite for the six-furlong Bing Crosby, a race he won in 2000 and 2001.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Tony Reinstedler and Nick Zito are in the envious position of each having two horses to run in next Sunday's 3-year-old stakes at Saratoga and Monmouth Park. The challenge for both trainers is deciding in which race to enter their charges.
The decision became more complicated in the last 24 hours with Friday's announcement that Came Home won't run in the $1 million Haskell and Saturday's revelation that Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem is back in the Haskell picture. The other option, of course, is the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Sea of Tranquility won the Grade 3, $100,000 Salvator Mile for the second year in a row at Monmouth on Saturday, but only after First Lieutenant, the first to cross the wire, was taken down for his interference with Free of Love at the top of the stretch.
Trial Prep ($8.10) outfought odds-on favorite Private Emblem through the stretch to win the $143,733 New York Derby at Finger Lakes by three-quarters of a length.
No Parole, who won the first leg of the Big Apple Triple for 3-year-old New York-breds, the seven-furlong Mike Lee at Belmont Park, never seriously threatened and finished third in the field of five, four lengths behind runner-up Private Emblem.
Trial Prep, trained by Richard Dutrow and ridden by John Grabowski, was timed in 1:45.18 for 1 1/16 miles.