ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Favored Sweetest Thing blew away her five rivals at Woodbine in the $500,000 Breeders' Stakes, the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.
It was a record seventh Breeders' victory for trainer Roger Attfield, who is 4 for 4 in the race with fillies. Sweetest Thing returned $3.50 in her stakes debut and banked $300,000 for owners Mickey Canino, Bill Werner, and Attfield.
Fly Smartly, Go Figure, and Vie for Fame vied up front through slow fractions in the
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The old Caressing, the one who won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies' last fall, showed up again at Arlington Park, turning back a challenge from Gal On the Go to win the Grade 3 $125,000 Singapore Plate Stakes by a length.
Caressing ($4.60) may have been briefly headed in mid-stretch by Gal On the Go, but she re-rallied gamely along the inside and was going away at the wire. Gal On the Go, the second choice, was clearly second, with Scoop third. The winner ran 1 1/8 miles on a fast main track in 1:50.74.
MIAMI - Pharmstar followed in the footsteps of her older sister, Valid Forbes, by registering an easy 4 3/4-length victory over even-money favorite Blissful Kiss in the $75,000 Desert Vixen Stakes at Calder on Saturday.
Valid Forbes won the 2000 edition of the six-furlong Desert Vixen, opening leg of the filly division of the Florida Stallion Series.
HENDERSON, Ky. - Asher led every step of the way Saturday, scoring by two lengths in the $200,000 Gardenia Stakes, the annual highlight of the Ellis Park meet.
Ridden by Mark Guidry, who was in from Saratoga, Asher paid $7 as third choice in the Grade 3 Gardenia. Zenith, an East Coast invader, closed steadily to finish second, a half-length before the 9-5 second choice, Royal Fair.
Rose of Zollern, the 119-pound topweight and 8-5 favorite in a field of eight fillies and mares, was a non-threatening fifth.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - This time, With Anticipation gets to keep his Grade 1 win.
Disqualified from first in last month's United Nations Handicap at Monmouth Park, With Anticipation made amends in grand style Saturday at Saratoga, registering a front-running, three-quarter length victory over a troubled 9-5 favorite King Cugat in the $500,000, Grade 1 Sword Dancer Invitational. Slew Valley, who pressed the pace for more than a mile and a quarter, held third.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trippi is not the same horse he used to be.
A multiple graded-stakes winner as a 3-year-old last season, Trippi lost for the fourth time this year and fifth straight overall as he finished third in a classified allowance race at Saratoga on Saturday. After pressing a moderate early pace, Trippi had little punch for the stretch drive and was beaten one-half length by Big E E. Bet Me Best finished second.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Out of Mind, a graded stakes winner in 2000, may not have done enough in a one-mile workout Saturday to earn a start in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Sunday.
Out of Mind, a 6-year-old, worked a mile in 1:39, the only recorded work at the distance on Saturday. It failed to impress trainer Richard Mandella.
"It wasn't so good that I'd say, I'd run," Mandella said. "I'll sit on it and see how he's doing. The time was fine, but it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Ida, an improving filly who was third in her last start at Pleasanton, returns to the grass to head a field of eight in the $32,000 allowance feature at a mile at Bay Meadows Monday.
The race is for fillies and mares who have not won $3,000 other than maiden, claiming or starter.
FORT ERIE, Ont. - Owner-trainer Ted Dobbie believes that no horse on the grounds deserves to win a stakes race more than his 6-year-old mare, Is She Real. He also feels strongly that justice will be served Tuesday when his runner opposes five fillies and mares in the $50,000, 1 1/16-mile Lauries Dancer Stakes, a new entry on the Fort Erie stakes calendar.
FORT ERIE, Ont. - After serving as an assistant to Woodbine trainer Mike Keogh for several years, Robert Martin took over the training of Victor Deschenes's runners last August. Last Monday, the 31-year-old Martin saddled his first stakes winner when Golden Returns upset the heavy favorite, Tempered Appeal, in the Expedite Plus Stakes at Fort Erie.
