SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Favored Victory Ride capitalized on a brutal pace set by Xtra Heat to capture the $250,000 Test Stakes, the second of two Grade 1 stakes on Saturday's card at Saratoga Race Course.
Xtra Heat, a winner of 14 of 16 starts before the Test, engaged in a bitter speed duel with Harmony Lodge that saw the two fillies battle through early splits of 21.51 seconds and 44. Xtra Heat put Harmony Lodge away late on the turn, only to face a three-wide challenge from Victory Ride.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Lido Palace surged past 4-5 favorite Albert The Great leaving the eighth pole and drew off for a two-length victory in Saturday's $750,000 Whitney Handicap on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course.
Albert The Great, the 124-pound highweight, held off a late-closing Gander for second by a neck. Perfect Cat was another neck back in fourth.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Thady Quill, unraced since January due to a hip injury, rallied between horses to win Friday's Wickerr Handicap at Del Mar.
Ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye, Thady Quill appeared unlucky on the final turn when stuck behind the leading flight of horses. But Delahoussaye, who won three races on Friday, guided Thady Quill to the rail and then through a small opening between pacesetters Lesters Boy and Spinelessjellyfish to win the one-mile turf stakes.
"Usually they are intimidated, but he went right through it," Delahoussaye said.
DEL MAR, Calif. - An upset winner in a turf race helped create a pick six carryover of $119,782 for Saturday's 10-race program at Del Mar, but one of the shortest prices of the program will not be starting.
Saturday's pick six changed considerably on Friday night when trainer Neil Drysdale indicated that Irish Prize, the morning-line favorite, will be scratched on Saturday. Drysdale said he would like to wait for the Atto Mile at Woodbine in September for Irish Prize, who has won four stakes this year.
DEL MAR, Calif. - It is a Grade 2 with a Grade 1 field. It is a $250,000 prep for a $1 million race, but make no mistake - the San Diego Handicap on Sunday at Del Mar is the deepest handicap race this year in Southern California.
Seven starters, hoping to press ahead to the Aug. 19 Pacific Classic, entered the San Diego. Six of them will be chasing Del Mar terror Skimming, the only pure speed horse and a two-time stakes winner here last summer.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Scott Schwartz believes there is a vacancy atop the older filly and mare division that his 4-year-old New York-bred Critical Eye is ready to fill.
Coming off the most prestigious victory of her career in the Grade 1 Hempstead Handicap, Critical Eye looks to make her case for divisional honors in Sunday's $250,000 Go for Wand Handicap at Saratoga. Critical Eye will face eight rivals in the Grade 1 race, including 1999 champion mare Beautiful Pleasure, Grade 1 winners Secret Status and Dreams Gallore, and recent stakes winners March Magic and Serra Lake.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Total handle increased while ontrack attendance decreased during the recently concluded Belmont spring/summer meeting. Ontrack handle was unchanged compared with last year.
Total handle for the 55-day meeting was $607,864,143, a 5 percent increase over last year's $581,280,354. The average daily handle in 2001 was $11,052,075.
Attendance for the 2001 meet was 441,392, down 6 percent from last year, when 469,048 attended the 55-day meeting.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Leading jockey Joe Bravo broke his leg in four places in a spill in the fifth race at Monmouth Friday.
X-rays taken at Monmouth Medical Center, in Long Branch, revealed that Bravo, an eight-time Monmouth riding champion, suffered a fracture in two places of the tibia and two places of the fibula in his left leg.
Bravo, 30, was to undergo surgery either Friday night or Saturday morning, according to his agent, Danny Mellul. At that time, an estimate will be made on how long he will need to recuperate.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Ronny Werner is hoping Touch Tone can make the big jump up to Grade 1 races. He has chosen the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational as the race to do so.
Touch Tone became a definite starter for the Aug. 5 Haskell on Friday, as Werner decided to send his lightly-raced colt to Monmouth instead of keeping him at Saratoga for the Jim Dandy one day earlier. The decision to start him in the Haskell was based upon, among other things, how the Monmouth strip usually favors horses with the running style of Touch Tone.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The 2-year-old colt division at Monmouth Park will come into focus Sunday with the running of the $50,000 Tyro Stakes, the first juvenile stakes of the meet.
The outcome of the Tyro, run at 5 1/2 furlongs, will shine a clearer picture onto the Grade 3 Sapling - the premier race here for 2-year-olds on Aug. 18.
