As widely expected, Dayatthespa  made a successful return to the races at Belmont Park on Sunday, laying just off early pacesetter My Jopia to the far turn, taking command on the turn, and shrugging off a challenge from Kibosh to win the $90,000 You Go West Girl Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Teddy’s Promise won the $93,850 Time to Leave Stakes for the second consecutive year at Betfair Hollywood Park on Sunday. This year, she had a much easier win than her half-length score in 2012.

Sunday, Teddy’s Promise stalked the early pace shared by Magical Band and Hidinginplainsight, rallied on the rail on the turn and pulled away to win by 4 1/4 lengths without significant urging from jockey Victor Espinoza.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario—Pyrite Mountain rallied strongly from last to upset reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Uncaptured in Sunday’s $116,600 Wando Stakes at Woodbine.

Midnight Aria set quick fractions in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds, while being tracked by Uncaptured and Tesseron. Pyrite Mountain raced inside about seven lengths off the pace on the backstretch, before moving into contention on the far turn.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan exited his win in Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodford Reserve at Churchill Downs in good condition, trainer Charlie LoPresti said, and will likely be pointed for a summer/fall turf campaign like the one he had in 2012.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There are times when horse racing can produce maddening, inexplicable results, waved away with a shrug and a common refrain, “That’s horse racing.”

Then there are times when everything comes together as if pre-ordained. The best jockey, on the best horse, prepared by the best trainer, bred by a family that has been competing at the top of racing for generations, wins the Kentucky Derby.[:slideshow-right:]

That, too, is horse racing.

Total betting on the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday was $130.5 million, according to the race chart, down 2.2 percent from the record total of $133.5 million bet last year but still the second-highest figure of all time.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When he guided Orb to a decisive triumph Saturday in the Kentucky Derby, jockey Joel Rosario completed an amazing run that began five weeks earlier with his victory aboard Animal Kingdom in the $10 million Dubai World Cup.

In between winning two of the most prestigious and important races in the world, Rosario also found time to set a record for victories at the Keeneland spring meet and to kick off the 2013 Churchill Downs season by winning five races on opening night.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Liaison saved Saturday for jockey Martin Garcia.

As recently as late April, Garcia was hoping to gain a mount in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. When his intended ride, Govenor Charlie, was withdrawn last week and nothing else materialized in the days before entries were taken, Garcia wound up staying in California to ride Liaison in the $150,000 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Garcia made the most of the opportunity. He gave Liaison an ideal ride to win the Grade 2 race for older horses over 1 1/16 miles.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It literally rained on trainer Todd Pletcher’s Kentucky Derby parade.

After a week where everything went swimmingly for the five-time Eclipse Award winning trainer, Pletcher’s quintet of Derby contenders floundered in the slop at Churchill Downs in the 139th Run for the Roses. The best Pletcher could do was a third-place finish with Revolutionary, the 6-1 second choice.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Here are the top-five finishers, with all available mutuel prices involving the 139th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs:

Top 5 order of finish, $2 mutuels
1 – Orb, No. 16, win $12.80; place, $7.40; show $5.40
2 – Golden Soul, No. 4, place, $38.60; show, $19.40
3 – Revolutionary, No. 3, show, $5.40
4 – Normandy Invasion, No. 5
5 – Mylute, No. 6