JAMAICA, N.Y. - Proper Gamble, who won the Dearly Precious in February, won her second straight stakes Saturday in the $108,600, Grade 3 Cicada at Aqueduct.
Proper Gamble, the second choice in the six-horse field of 3-year-old fillies, won the seven-furlong Cicada by 2 3/4 lengths. Short Note finished second, a head in front of 1-2 favorite Forest Heiress in third.
ALBANY, Calif. - Madame Pietra ($7.40) made a strong move on the turn to take command and pulled away down the lane to win the $60,550 Soviet Problem Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.
The 5-year-old mare defeated Fancee Bargain by 2.5 lengths, winning the six-furlong race in 1:09.21.
"She did everything (trainer Howard Zucker) said she'd do from loading in the gate to the finish," winning jockey Joey Castro said. "She relaxed down the backstretch. I tapped her at the 5/16ths, and when she started her rally, I just kept her running."
OLDSMAR, Fla. - What does a trainer say when he's sending out winners at a blistering 63 percent?
"Don't tell too many people. We don't want to attract too much attention," trainer Tom Proctor said by phone Saturday morning.
Too late. The cat's out of the bag when it comes to Proctor and the horses of Glen Hill Farm. Through Thursday, Proctor-trained Glen Hill runners had won 14 of 22 starts at the meet, with several of those victories in little doubt from the quarter pole to the wire.
NEW ORLEANS - It's only fitting that Sarah Lane's Oates's racing career should come to an end Monday in the Red Camelia Handicap.
Sarah Lane's Oates won the Red Camelia in 1998, won again the next year, and made it a hat trick in 2000. Last year, she lost by a nose, and Monday she seeks revenge in a race that may as well have her name on it.
Monday's 10-race program also brings to a close the Fair Grounds meet that began on Thanksgiving.
NEW ORLEANS - Neither turf, nor distance, nor a group of males could stop the filly You'llbeinmyheart from staying unbeaten Saturday in the $100,000 Gentilly Handicap. You'llbeinmyheart came from just off the pace and put in a solid stretch run to win the Gentilly by 1 3/4 lengths.
NEW ORLEANS - There have been Grade 1 races around the country this year that looked very much like Grade 2's or Grade 3's. Sunday at Fair Grounds, they're running a Grade 2 that looks like a Grade 1.
The $700,000 Explosive Bid Handicap, the final burst of fireworks at a Fair Grounds meet that ends Monday, has attracted a full gate of 14 horses. They will run nine furlongs over a turf course that has been preserved the last several weeks strictly for use in the Explosive Bid. And they are a strong, strong bunch.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The $75,000 Santa Paula Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita is not a free pass for Bella Bellucci, one of the nation's top 2-year-old fillies of 2001.
With the Kentucky Oaks on May 3 as her springtime goal, Bella Bellucci makes her 3-year-old debut in the Santa Paula, facing four fillies who are well suited to the distance of 6 1/2 furlongs.
Chicago Six will be on the defensive in more ways than one at Sportsman's Park on Sunday. Not only will he be defending his title in the featured $100,000 Sportsman's Park Breeders' Cup, but he also will try to preserve his unbeaten record over the Cicero, Ill., oval. To do both, he will have to fend off nine challengers in the one-mile handicap for older horses.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Up until entries closed for the $200,000 Orchid Handicap early Friday afternoon the Grade 2 race appeared to be a one-sided affair with Moon Queen appearing almost unbeatable coming off her easy victory in The Very One Handicap five weeks earlier.
But when trainer Christophe Clement made a last minute decision to hold Moon Queen out of the 1 1/2-mile Orchid, the race suddenly became wide open and one of the better betting events on Sunday's 10-race card at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Bold World pulled off the rare feat of winning two stakes races within a five-day period when she jogged home an easy 6 1/4-length winner of Friday's $76,387 Charon Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Bold World, a 3-year-old, won the filly division of the Ocala Breeders' Sale Stakes on Monday.