JAMAICA, N.Y. - The New York Racing Association might want to consider changing the Gallant Fox Handicap* (click here for chart) to the Coyote Lakes Handicap for the 2002 running.
On Saturday at Aqueduct, Coyote Lakes, making his fourth consecutive Gallant Fox appearance, won the Grade 3 for the second time. Actually, for the second time in 2001 since the 2000 running was postponed due to a weather-related cancellation and run in 2001.
Dancing Missile immediately went to the lead from his outside post, and then gamely held off a sustained inside run from Personal First for the first stakes victory of his career in Saturday's $50,000 Holiday Cheer Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
Dancing Missile, a 3-year-old Canaveral colt owned by Joe Haller, prevailed by a half-length in the six-furlong Holiday Cheer. Ridden by Justin Vitek, he returned $10.80 as fourth choice in a field of eight.
NEW ORLEANS - The Illinois breeding program is going crazy in New Orleans. A week after Illinois-breds ran one-two in the Woodchopper Handicap at Fair Grounds, the Illinois-bred San Pedro, outfitted with a new set of blinkers, won the $75,000 Louisiana Handicap on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - For the second time in as many months, Lady George pulled an upset in a stakes for statebreds with a victory in Friday's $150,000 California Breeders' Champion Stakes at Santa Anita.
The latest win, at 8-1, came seven weeks after Lady George won the California Cup Juvenile Fillies at 15-1.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - When the 2001 New York racing season comes to a close after Sunday's ninth race at Aqueduct, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. will have won his first year-end training title in New York.
Through Friday's card, Dutrow won
85 races from 341 starters, 14 more than Todd Pletcher, who held second place by a narrow margin over Bill Mott (69). Last year, Dutrow, a son of the late Dick Dutrow, a leading trainer in New York and Maryland, finished the year in third.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The $150,000 San Gabriel Handicap on Sunday at Santa Anita comes at an ideal time for trainer Bobby Frankel, who is having a career-best year.
Entering the weekend, Frankel had 18 Grade 1 stakes wins and had 49 stakes wins, one shy of his personal best of 50.
In the Grade 2 San Gabriel Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile turf race, Frankel has entered three - El Gran Papa, No Slip*, and Northern Quest* (click here for PP's), all stakes winners in 2001.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Winning Sunday's $75,000-added Alex M. Robb at Aqueduct with Spectacularspencer would be a fitting conclusion to trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. and owner Sanford Goldfarb's terrific year in New York in 2001.
Dutrow and Goldfarb each will win year-end titles for races won in New York this year. And it won't be shocking if Spectacularspencer provides them with their last victory in New York in 2001 when the racing year ends Sunday.
Spectacularspencer will be favored in the Alex M. Robb, a New York-bred handicap at 1 1/16 miles which drew 12 horses.
NEW ORLEANS - Heavy rain early Friday morning in New Orleans tore a hole in the field for the Furl Sail Handicap, and with six of the 14 entrants scratched when the race was moved from turf to dirt, Mimi's Tizzy stole away to an easy lead and won the Furl Sail by four lengths.
Expertly ridden by jockey Kirk Leblanc, who scored his fifth stakes win of this meet, Mimi's Tizzy opened a clear lead on the first turn of the one-mile Furl Sail and ran on a loose rein down the backstretch.
"Everybody took back off me and let me have it my way," Leblanc said.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Next year's Grade 2, $300,000 Ohio Derby at Thistledown will be returned to its traditional July spot on the calendar after having been moved to Sept. 29 this year.
"We tried to use it as a prep for the Breeders' Cup, but the numbers didn't add up," said Bill Couch, the track's racing secretary. "In the three years prior years, the Ohio Derby drew 11-horse fields. This year, the field was six."