HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Skeet overtook dueling leaders Shake You Down, who broke slow, and That Tat, for a two and a quarter length win in the $50,000 Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Sunday.
That Tat held for second, while Shake You Down, the 2-5 favorite, finished last in the five-horse field, beaten eight and three quarter lengths by Skeet.
Skeet ($7.40) broke slow from the rail, advanced nicely on the turn, and overtook the leaders into the stretch. He covered six furlongs in 1:09.20.
ALBANY, Calif. - Christmas Time ($9.20) broke sharply, dueled Pheiffer into submission and continued on to score a victory in the $55,400 Soviet Problem Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday.
The 4-year-old filly broke sharply and dueled head-and-head with Pheiffer, who had just won the Richmond Handicap. Christmas Time had Pheiffer pinned to the rail as the two dueled to the top of the lane.
NEW ORLEANS - For much of his career, Mystery Giver has teased, mixing flashes of brilliance with fizzles in big races. Sunday at Fair Grounds, at age 6, Mystery Giver broke through, winning the $500,000 by a three-quarters of a length, and keying a local sweep of the top three places.
Mystery Giver was 9-2 in this race last year, when it still was called the Explosive Bid. This time, despite having won the Fair Grounds Breeders' Cup for the third straight year, he was 15-1.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - When it comes to Gulfstream Park's Orchid Handicap, nobody does it better than trainer Christophe Clement.
Clement saddled his sixth Orchid winner and fifth in the last six years when Meridiana led throughout to register a 1.25 length victory over Savedbythelight in the $200,000, Grade 2 .
Clement won the Orchid for the first time in 1994 with Trampoli then waited four more years before reeling off four consecutive victories, from 1999 through 2002, with Coretta, Lisieux Rose, Innuendo and Julie Jalouse.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Meteor Storm needs 1 1/2 miles to do his best. He doesn't want, nor need, to be on the lead. In Saturday's $200,000 , he finally got both his ideal distance and his ideal trip, and he responded by rallying to take the Grade 2 stakes race by a neck over fast-finishing Labirinto.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Smarty Jones ran his career record to 5-for-5 with a dominating, three and a quarter length win over favorite Purge in the $200,000 at Oaklawn Park on Saturday.
With the victory, Smarty Jones is the lone 3-year-old eligible for the $5 million Centennial Bonus from Oaklawn. To cash in, he will have to win the $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 10 and the Kentucky Derby on May 1.
ALBANY, Calif. - More Crafty ($44.60), winner of the Albany Handicap the first weekend of the meet, sat well off a fast pace and got to the finish line first in a perfectly timed ride to edge Green Team by a head in the $59,312 Danville Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.
More Crafty, claimed for $80,000 on Jan. 31, was a disappointing fourth in the Coyote Handicap at Turf Paradise in his first start for trainer Rene Amescua.
FLORENCE, Ky. - As the Kentucky Derby hopes of Birdstone and several other more well regarded 3-year-olds evaporated in a heavy mist that enveloped Turfway Park, a parade of longshots, led by New York invader Sinister G, dominated the $500,000 on Saturday.
FLORENCE, Ky. - Maybe it's the track, or maybe it's the easier company. Whatever the case, Class Above posted another easy victory at Turfway when she drew off to a 3 3/4-length triumph in the $150,000 Bourbonette Breeders' Cup Stakes.
Jerry Bailey was aboard heavily favored Class Above for owner Padua Stable and trainer Bob Baffert in the one-mile Bourbonette. In her only previous appearance here, Class Above won the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies last fall by 16 lengths.
NEW ORLEANS - Walk This Way raced close to the lead and faded in his grass debut, a fourth-place finish 15 days ago at Fair Grounds. Saturday, when it counted more, his connections changed tactics. This time, Walk This Way ran slow early and faster late, and got up to win the $100,000 Gentilly Handicap by 1 1/4 lengths over Old Lee, the favorite.
