NEW ORLEANS - Lead by Example, an improbable winner based on his form, rallied in the stretch to narrowly win the Old Hickory Stakes on a rainy Saturday at Fair Grounds.
Winless in five starts since taking a $50,000 maiden claimer more than five months ago at Churchill Downs, Lead by Example refused to let the Louisiana-bred Walk in the Snow pass after the pair converged inside the sixteenth pole, winning by a neck in a driving finish.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Mountain Rage is determined to be a turf star for trainer Bob Baffert.
Best known for his success with dirt horses, Baffert has a turf horse to follow in Mountain Rage, who won his first stakes in Saturday's $200,000 Generous Stakes* (click here for chart) at Hollywood Park.
Owned by George Jacobs and Jill Moss, Mountain Rage ($12.80) finished a mile on turf in 1:40.31 on a course rated good. He was supplemented to the Generous for $10,000 after finishing second in the Pinjara Stakes at Santa Anita last month.
NEW ORLEANS - There is joy emanating from the Sam David barn - Getyourbritchesngo is about to race.
And it's not just that Getyourbritchesngo seems poised to win a third-level allowance sprint, the feature on Monday at Fair Grounds. It also means that the 3-year-old colt won't be training for the next couple days.
"He's go, go, go," David said Saturday. "He's pretty hard to rate. My exercise boy is always happy to see him in a race. It means he doesn't have to gallop him."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Veteran jockey Craig Perret completed an unlikely stakes double on closing weekend at Churchill Downs when his longshot mount, Ubiquity, gamely held on Friday to defeat favored Include by a neck in the 127th running of the $452,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.
Ubiquity, a 4-year-old colt still eligible for three-other-than allowance conditions, returned $40.40 after leading all the way in the 1 1/8-mile Clark, a Grade 2 race that probably unfolded quite differently than most handicappers suspected when Gander was taken back to last in a field of 10.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Forty on Line has made a quick impression in this country. A maiden when she arrived from England during the summer, Forty on Line is now 2 for 2 in the United States after a front-running win in Friday's $200,000 Miesque Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Hollywood Park.
Ridden by Corey Nakatani, Forty on Line ($43) was not challenged until late, when Riskaverse got within a length, the margin at the finish. Forty on Line finished a mile on turf in 1:36.38. The stakes win came a five weeks after she won a maiden race on turf at Santa Anita in her U.S. debut.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Things are going so well for trainer Shug McGaughey at the Aqueduct meet that even when his even-money favorite fails, he still comes out on top.
Cat Cay, the less-heralded part of McGaughey's uncoupled entry, rallied from last to nip front-running Tugger by a head in Friday's $150,000, Grade 2 Top Flight Handicap. Atelier, the even-money favorite also trained by McGaughey, finished another 1 1/2 lengths back in third.
It was the eighth winner from 21 starts at this meet for McGaughey - the leading trainer - who also has three seconds and three thirds.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Ben Cecil reacted as fast as a game show contestant when asked on Friday how 3-year-old fillies have done in recent runnings of the Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park.
He knew that 1998 winner Ryafan was the most recent 3-year-old filly to succeed, preceded by Flawlessly in 1991 and Castilla in 1982.
On Sunday, Cecil hopes that his Golden Apples can become the fourth 3-year-old filly to win the late-season Grade 1 when she is likely to start as a slight favorite in the $500,000 Matriarch, run over 1 1/8 miles on turf.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - During the four months he was sidelined by injury, jockey Jose Santos thought long and hard about his career. He decided that he wants to ride for another five to seven years, and he plans on making the most of that time.
"I'm definitely not going to beat Laffit Pincay," Santos said, referring to Thoroughbred racing's all-time winningest rider. "I'm just trying to imitate him a little bit."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Kona Gold, the beaten favorite in the Breeders' Cup Sprint last month at Belmont Park, will be given six weeks off after failing to impress trainer Bruce Headley in the Frank J. De Francis Memor-ial Dash at Laurel Park in Maryland last weekend.
Headley on Friday said that Kona Gold, the champion sprinter of 2000, has been turned out on property at his home in Arcadia, Calif., near Santa Anita.
"He's either lost interest, he's over the hill, he didn't like the track, or I didn't train him right," Headley said. "There is a lot of speculation."
