INGLEWOOD, Calif. - An afternoon of rain kept Breeders' Cup Mile winner Val Royal out of Saturday's $500,000 Citation Handicap* (click here for chart) but it gave Good Journey a turf course that more resembled a European surface than Hollywood Park.
Racing over a course rated good, Good Journey closed from fifth to outfinish Decarchy, winning by a half-length. The Grade 2 Citation was Good Journey's first stakes win.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Left Bank capped a breakthrough year for himself and a wonderful afternoon for his trainer, Todd Pletcher, and jockey, John Velazquez, by rolling to a 3 1/4-length, front-running victory in Saturday's $350,000 Cigar Mile* (click here for chart) at Aqueduct.
Graeme Hall, also trained by Pletcher, rallied to finish second, a head in front of Red Bullet. Volponi, Affirmed Success, Peeping Tom, Ticket to Freedom, and Capsized completed the order of finish.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Call it a harrowing experience, or call it a learning experience.
Whatever it was, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes* (click here for chart) resulted in a difficult but well-earned victory Saturday for heavily favored Repent, who fought his way through one trouble spot after another to win the Grade 2 race by 1 1/4 lengths. He returned $3.60 to win.
"I don't have that much hair left," said Repent's mostly bald trainer, Ken McPeek.
JAMAICA, N.Y. - Saarland made amends for disappointing efforts in the Champagne and Breeders' Cup Juvenile by getting past Nokoma in the final strides to win Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000, Remsen Stakes* (click here for chart) by a neck before 6,681 at Aqueduct.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Favored Devil Valentine ($2.40) was a comfortable winner of the $125,125 Sir Barton Stakes at Woodbine.
Devil Valentine defeated only three opponents while posting his third consecutive victory in the 1 1/16-mile race for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds. He dueled with Ruff Tuff Stuff through fractions of 23.04 seconds, 47.01, and 1:12.12, and pulled away in the stretch to win by 2 3/4 lengths.
Indian Dan closed steadily to edge Ruff Tuff Stuff by a nose for second. The final time was 1:45.08.
MIAMI - Tour of the Cat turned the tables on his nemesis TV Sports Director and confirmed his status as one of the top 3-year-olds on the Calder grounds when he registered a half-length victory in the $60,000 The Vid Handicap.
Tour of the Cat had finished behind TV Sports Director in the Needles and Simply Majestic stakes earlier this season. But jockey Abad Cabassa Jr. took advantage of his inside post and sent Tour of the Cat to a lead that he never relinquished, despite setting a rapid pace and drifting through the late stages of The Vid.
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.
