MIAMI - Trainers have been complaining about racing secretaries putting too much weight on their horses since the first handicap races were run over a century ago. But when the numbers were released for Saturday's $100,000 Tropical Turf Handicap at Calder some horseman might have been grumbling because their nominees weren't assigned enough weight by racing secretary Bob Umphrey for the Grade 3 stakes.
Pretty Boy Perry overtook Shining Sky, the nation's top-ranked 2-year-old Quarter Horse, in deep stretch to win the Grade 1, $925,000 Texas Classic Quarter Horse Futurity by a neck Saturday night at Lone Star Park near Dallas. It was another half-length back in third to Sweet First Down.
The 400-yard Texas Classic is the state's richest race, and annually closes out the fall Quarter Horse meet at Lone Star.
ALBANY, Calif. - The two happiest trainers heading into a new week of racing at Golden Gate Fields may be Larry Ross and Art Sherman, who saddled the winners in weekend stakes races.
Ross saddled Radar Contact, a $41.40 upset winner in the final strides of Saturday's Albany Handicap. Sherman had it much easier as he watched Lindsay Jean ($12.20) romp as the wire-to-wire winner of Sunday's Moment to Buy Handicap.
Arlington Park in suburban Chicago was officially named on Monday as the host track for the 2002 Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships. Representatives of Arlington, Breeders' Cup Ltd., and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association gathered in downtown Chicago to make the announcement.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - It was oldtimer's day at Hollywood Park on Sunday, when 8-year-old Men's Exclusive and 54-year-old jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. combined to give octogenarian owner Gene Reed a victory in the Grade 3, $100,000 Vernon O. Underwood Handicap* (click here for chart) before 7,908 fans.
ALBANY, Calif. - Lindsay Jean won the first stake of her career with a wire-to-wire victory in the $59,050 Moment To Buy Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday.
Originally scheduled for the turf, the 1 1/16-mile race was transferred to the main track after heavy overnight rains. Lindsay Jean ($12.40), coming off a victory and a second-place finish in turf races in her past two starts, was able to dictate the tempo on a wet-fast track and was never seriously challenged as she beat Super Tuesday by two lengths in 1:41.78.
HOUSTON, TX. - Jeremiah Jack kept French Assault from becoming the fourth Breeders' Cup Juvenile starter to come back and win a stakes when he rolled to a commanding five-length win over that one in Saturday night's $150,000 Texan Juvenile* (click here for chart) at Sam Houston Race Park in Houston.
It was another 3.75 lengths back in third to Private Emblem.
ALBANY, Calif - Radar Contact settled early then went into a prolonged rally down the stretch as he nipped favored Rio Oro by a head to win the$60,513 Albany Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.
Even jockey Adalberto Lopez wasn't sure he'd win. "They were so far in front of us when I got him out that I didn't think we could get there.
I knew we'd get a part of it, but I didn't think we could get it all," he said.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Evening Attire confirmed his victory in the Discovery Handicap was no fluke by running down 4-5 favorite Balto Star inside the sixteenth pole en route to a 1 3/4-length victory in Saturday's Grade 3, $111,900 Queens County Handicap* (click here for chart) on a balmy day at Aqueduct.
NEW ORLEANS - Sabathani has chased some fairly serious turf fillies in Chicago all summer, so her connections will be relieved to discover that she has found a field she should handle in Fair Grounds's Monday feature. An Illinois-bred full sister to the graded stakes winner Minor Wisdom, Sabathani deserves to be favored over six rivals in Monday's ninth race, a third-level grass allowance with a $75,000 claiming option.
The 10-race program gets a boost from the seventh race, a second-level route allowance on the main track that has attracted some promising horses.
