ARCADIA, Calif. - Racing on a track that played kind to frontrunners, Western Pride scored an upset win in Saturday's $214,200 San Fernando Breeders' Cup Stakes* at Santa Anita.
The victory gave trainer James Chapman an opportunity to predict a successful winter for Western Pride, who has won four stakes in the last six months.
"He never gets credit for what he's done so far," Chapman said. "He's a great horse. They'll know what he's done now."
NEW ORLEANS - He's back. Three weeks after a surprising, tough-luck loss in the F.W. Gaudin Handicap, Bonapaw asserted his supremacy among local sprinters with a powerful win in the $75,000 Colonel Power Handicap.
Bonapaw ($5) pressed the early pace of Abajo, moved to the lead turning for home, and never looked back, steadily drawing away from his six opponents to win by 5 1/4 lengths. His time of 1:09.35 for six furlongs on a sloppy track set a stakes record.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Jockey Tommy Pompell didn't ride his first race until he was 23. In Thoroughbred racing, a world where apprentice riders often start their riding careers before they attend their first prom, Pompell is clearly a late-bloomer.
But late-bloomer or not, he is one of the interesting stories of this meeting, as he rode another winner here Friday to bring his total for the young Tampa Bay Downs meet to seven, putting him in the top 10 in the rider standings.
NEW ORLEANS - Speed usually rules sprint races for younger horses, but a trio of 3-year-old closers bears watching on Monday at Fair Grounds.
Chamrousse, She's Rite on Time, and Meteor Miracle, who won their maiden races with strong stretch runs, will match late kicks in the seventh race, a first-level, six-furlong allowance for 3-year-old fillies.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Trainer John Servis said Zonk has always trained like a quality filly but on occasion has been a disappointment in the afternoon. That certainly wasn't the case on Saturday at Aqueduct in the $113,400 Affectionately Handicap* (click here for chart).
Zonk was a one-length winner over People's Princess in the Grade 3 Affectionately. It was another 3 1/2 lengths back to Search Party in third in the 10-horse field of fillies and mares.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It was not trainer Linda Rice's intention to run her multiple-stakes winning filly August Storm against males in her 3-year-old debut. But when the Tropical Oaks was moved to the dirt and an allowance race did not fill, Monday's $65,000 Dave Feldman Stakes at Gulfstream Park was Rice's only viable option if she was to make the Herecomesthebride Stakes here on Feb. 3.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Between them, Hook and Ladder and Istintaj won all five of their starts at Gulfstream Park last winter, including each of the meet's major sprint stakes. Once they left south Florida, the pair went a combined 0 for 10 the remainder of the season.
Thus it is not surprising that trainers John Kimmel and Mark Hennig are glad to have their star sprinters back at Gulfstream, where they will hook up against seven rivals in Sunday's $100,000 Mr. Prospector Handicap.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Next Saturday, trainer Eddie Plesa will find out just how good a 3-year-old he has in O'Rocky when the upset winner of the What a Pleasure Stakes runs in the $100,000 Holy Bull Stakes. On Friday, Plesa found out just how much O'Rocky liked Gulfstream Park's main track by vanning him seven miles from Calder for a five-furlong workout Plesa timed in 1:00.60.
The workout was not officially recorded by track clockers, but would have equaled the second fastest time among 38 timed workouts at the distance.
