Mon, 03/18/2002 - 00:00

Sam Houston: Storm Alarm upsets

Storm Alarm, trained by G. Leon Bard, won the $30,000 Texas Heritage for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds at Sam Houston in Houston.

Storm Alarm ($44.20) led from start to finish to win the Texas Heritage by 1 1/4 lengths over Revered Soldier. It was a neck back in third to Padlock. Storm Alarm covered the mile in 1:38.71 under Allen Dupuy. He races for Clayton Atkinson and Trey Malecheck.

Mon, 03/18/2002 - 00:00

Sportsman's: Wired to Fly hangs on

Wired to Fly repelled a challenge from two rivals in the stretch to capture the $100,000 Cicero Handicap for fillies and mares at Sportsman's Park in Cicero, Ill.

Longshot Adam's Time, last at the top of the stretch, fell a head short of the winner. Hattiesburg, the 6-5 favorite, closed for third, beaten less than a length. The winning time for six furlongs over a fast track was 1:12.52.

Mon, 03/18/2002 - 00:00

Laurel: First Amendment wins

First Amendment set some quick early fractions but had enough left in the tank to win Saturday's $50,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial Handicap at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

First Amendment defeated P Day by 3 1/4 lengths in the 1 1/8-mile Johnson, for older males. Lyracist finished third, 1 1/2 lengths behind the runner-up.

Owned by Michael Gill, First Amendment, a 5-year-old, completed the distance in 1:49.35 over a fast track after clicking off fractions of 23.31 seconds, 46.62, and 1:11.15.

First Amendment ($14.60) is trained by Mark Shuman.

Mon, 03/18/2002 - 00:00

Turfway: Double Affair in a thriller

Saturday's $50,000 Tejano Run Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., appeared contentious on paper, and proved competitive on the track.

Three horses finished nearly together, with Double Affair eking out a head victory over Frazee's Folly and Two Point Two Mill.

Jockey Jeff Johnston squeezed Double Affair through an opening on the rail in the stretch, and he caught pacesetter Frazee's Folly in the final strides.

Mon, 03/18/2002 - 00:00

Ask Me No Secrets is a late bloomer

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Ask Me No Secrets was worth waiting for. The filly, who did not make it to the races until late last year because of physical setbacks, rewarded the patience of her owner and breeder, Earl Shultz, by winning the Grade 3, $200,000 Oaklawn Breeders' Cup last Saturday in just her fifth career start.

The victory was her first in a stakes, and her third overall, and it enhanced her already significant residual value as a daughter of Seattle Slew and the Secretariat mare In On the Secret.

Mon, 03/18/2002 - 00:00

Mayakovsky's man moving to N.Y.

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Trainer Patrick Biancone calls Gotham Stakes winner Mayakovsky "a New Yorker living in California." That is about to change. When Biancone ships Mayakovsky back to New York for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 13, both horse and trainer will become New Yorkers. Biancone said Monday that he is moving his California-based stable to New York, where he will have a 10-horse string at Belmont Park.

Mon, 03/18/2002 - 00:00

Tampa Bay: Equality looks impressive

Equality may be headed for bigger and better things after scoring his first stakes victory in the Grade 3, $200,000 Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs.

Trainer Graham Motion said he will have to think seriously about giving Equality a shot against some of the top 3-year-olds in the country, perhaps in next month's Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

Sun, 03/17/2002 - 00:00

Medaglia d'Oro wins San Felipe Stakes

Vaughn Youtz
Medaglia d'Oro, the third choice at 8-1, paid $19 to win after covering 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track in an excellent 1:41.95.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The Bobby Frankel Express stormed into the Kentucky Derby picture and steamrolled Siphonic on Sunday at Santa Anita, when the lightly raced Medaglia d'Oro scored a 2 1/2-length victory in the $250,000 , a race in which the heavily favored Siphonic was a poor third.

Sun, 03/17/2002 - 00:00

Mayakovsky victorious in Gotham

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Mayakovsky got his win. Saarland got his race. And the connections of the two principal horses in Sunday's $200,000 Gotham Stakes left chilly Aqueduct Sunday afternoon quite content with their position.

Mayakovsky, away from the races since Sept.1, used his speed and class to record a 3 3/4 length gate-to-wire victory in the Grade 3 Gotham before 6,618 at Aqueduct. Saarland, unraced since winning the Remsen last Nov. 24, finished with interest to be second, 2 1/2 lengths ahead of Parade Music.

Sun, 03/17/2002 - 00:00

Horse for course Gold Mover does it again

HALLANDALE BEACH, FLA. - The deregulation of racing dates in south Florida gave Gulfstream Park an extra six weeks of racing in 2002. The connections of Gold Mover probably wish it was more like six months.