ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Front-running Platel held off U.S. invader Miss City Halo to capture the $140,750 Star Shoot Stakes at Woodbine Saturday.
Platel was away alertly in this six-furlong dash for 3-year-old fillies and set quick fractions of 21.97 and 44.52 seconds. Favored Miss City Halo closed from three lengths back on the turn, but came up a neck short. Lady Shari was another 6 3/4 lengths back in third in the seven-horse field.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Southern California invader National Park seemed to outclass the field in Saturday's $100,000 Grand Prairie Turf Challenge at Lone Star Park. But the 9-10 favorite in the field of 11 3-year-olds had to summon all his reserves to rally in the closing strides for a three-quarter-length victory.
Trained by Bob Hess for the Fog City Stable, National Park ($3.80) covered a mile on a turf course labeled "good" in 1:41.17.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The last time the red-and-yellow silks of Fusao Sekiguchi were carried in a horse-race in Kentucky was May 2000, when Fusaichi Pegasus won the Kentucky Derby.
On Friday, as Keeneland Race Course opened its 16-day spring meet before an ontrack crowd of 14,879, Sekiguchi was the winning owner in the feature race, the $100,000 Transylvania Stakes.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Dat You Miz Blue and Maddie May have been two of the better New York-bred female sprinters for the last three-plus years. Somehow, they have crossed paths only once, a three-length victory by Maddie May in the 1999 Maid of the Mist Stakes.
Sunday, the two 5-year-old mares meet again, when Maddie May will attempt to run down Dat You Miz Blue in the $75,000 Broadway Handicap at Aqueduct. Dat You Miz Blue, trained by Jimmy Jerkens, won this seven-furlong race a year ago and is the 123-pound highweight for Sunday's renewal.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The first four finishers in the 2001 Jacques Cartier Stakes - Wake at Noon, Exciting Story, Olympian, and Mr. Epperson - will meet again at Woodbine in Sunday's running, worth $132,625.
Wake at Noon earned the highest Beyer Speed Figure (113) in Canada last year after taking the six-furlong Jacques Cartier over a closing Exciting Story. He won just one other race on the year, but was a bang-up second in two graded stakes in the U.S., the True North Handicap at Belmont and the Philadelphia Park Breeders' Cup Handicap.
ARCADIA, Calif. - In other circumstances, Officer might have faced the same question this weekend as Santa Anita Derby favorites Came Home and Mayakovsky - how far can he run?
But Officer has not raced in nearly four months. So the question is not how far he can run, but whether he can still run fast. A brilliant 2-year-old, Officer makes his first start as a 3-year-old in the $100,000 Zany Tactics for California-breds Sunday at Santa Anita, race 3 on a card that includes the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Handicap for filly-mare turf sprinters.
CALGARY, Alberta - Delta Epsilon and Harbour Ice head a field of nine in the seventh race on Sunday's program.
The half-mile race carries a $12,000 purse and is restricted to 4-year-olds.
The co-favorites drop in for a $15,000 claiming price, perhaps surprising some who were looking for a soft spot to open their campaign.
Delta Epsilon drew the rail and will receive support following a
3-year-old campaign in which he was competitive against allowance and high-level claimers, including Fancy As and Sixthirtyjoe.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Due to Win, a 43-1 longshot, wore down 6-5 favorite Red n'Gold through the stretch to win the $75,000 Bayakoa Stakes by three-quarters of a length Friday at Oaklawn Park. It was another two lengths back in third to Caressing.
The Bayakoa was the first of nine stakes to be decided during the annual Racing Festival of the South at Oaklawn, which runs through April 13.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Picking up where she left off in 2001, Mystic Lady ran her winning streak to four with a three-quarter-length victory over Happily Unbridled in Friday's $75,000 Banshee Breeze Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Jostle, a multiple Grade 1 winner, finished a tiring third in her 2002 debut.
Mystic Lady closed out her 3-year-old campaign last year with three straight victories, including the Grade 2 Cotillion and Grade 3 Honey Bee Handicaps. Despite having been idle for five months, Mystic Lady was fit and ready for the 1 1/16-mile Banshee Breeze.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Lone Star Park opened Thursday night to a large crowd, and a winning performance from the star of the evening, jockey Jerry Bailey.
Bailey, a Dallas native who grew up in El Paso, enjoyed a warm reception from the crowd of 14,123. Fans lined up to have his autograph soon after the gates opened, and later cheered him after he rode two winners from four mounts.
He won the $50,000 Premiere Stakes aboard Lights on Broadway in the meet's first race, and later won a $30,000 claiming race with Kris's Sleigh.