OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Spice Island ran her winning streak to three and notched her first graded stakes victory in Saturday's 1 1/2-mile, Grade 2 at Aqueduct.
Ridden by Victor Carrero, Spice Island tracked the front-runners for most of the three-turn race and then ran down favored Volga in the last 100 yards to win by 1 1/2 lengths. Spice Island was the fourth choice in the 11-horse field and paid $16 to win. After setting most of the pace, Banyu Dewi was third, four lengths behind Spice Island.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Ben Cecil thought it was worth sending Hoh Buzzard all the way from California for the Mrs. Revere Stakes, although "we were going to look like idiots if she didn't run any good," said Cecil.
Instead, Cecil and owner Gary Tanaka looked absolutely brilliant Saturday afternoon after Hoh Buzzard, ridden by Ryan Fogelsonger, led wire-to-wire in defeating 11 other 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 2, $175,650 at Churchill Downs.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Owner Frank Calabrese and trainer Wayne Catalano love a sure thing. All summer at Arlington, they send out horses to win claiming races at desperately short odds.
Saturday at Hawthorne, they played a much different game, taking a stab in the $100,000 Hawthorne Oaks with the 36-1 shot Beautiful Crazy, who got up by a head and lit up the board, paying $75.40 to win.
"I could've been a goat, but I guess I'm the hero," Catalano said.
Prized Amberpro passed the $500,000 mark in earnings when she rallied for a two-length win over Leg's O'Neal in Friday's $75,000 Magnolia, one of two stakes for Louisiana-breds at Delta Downs.
Prized Amberpro ($5.60), ridden by C.J. Woodley, settled in sixth early in the Magnolia, a seven-furlong race for fillies and mares held around two turns. She closed well through the stretch and finished in 1:26.46.
Lovely Afternoon made her first five career starts in the Windy City of Chicago, so she must have felt right at home with the blustery conditions at Penn National.
Ridden by Larry Sterling, Lovely Afternoon ($2.80) rallied to score a 1 3/4-length victory in the $53,450 Blue Mountain Futurity for Pennsylvania-bred 2-year-old fillies.
ANDERSON, Ind. - Down by the Sea proved worthy of her 6-5 favoritism by defeating nine Indiana-bred 2-year-old fillies by 1 1/4 lengths in the $74,250 Miss Indiana Stakes at Hoosier Park.
Down by the Sea, with Bill Troilo riding for trainer Joe Davis, recovered from a slow start to seize the lead in the opening quarter and then held tight to post her first stakes victory. The performance validated her gutsy nose win over Victory Punch three weeks ago, when Down by the Sea and Troilo battled head and head throughout in a nonwinners-of-two allowance.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rick Pitino has received many awards in his basketball coaching career, but it's doubtful he ever gave a trophy to himself.
Pitino is scheduled to present the winner's trophy Sunday, following the $150,000 River City Handicap at Churchill Downs, and just might be one of the recipients. Pitino is the part-owner of Della Francesca, the Danzig colt who was good enough to win the Grade 2 Belmont Breeders' Cup and is one of many legitimate contenders in the Grade 3 River City.
On Friday, for the second consecutive day, the Churchill Downs Simulcast Network withheld all of its signals, including Churchill Downs, Hollywood Park, Calder Race Course, and Hoosier Park, from the 17 tracks that form the Southern Racing Cooperative.
Despite being in the midst of a multiyear agreement that runs through 2004, CDSN and the cooperative have been in simulcast rate negotiations since Tuesday, when the cooperative tracks opted not to import the opening-day program from Hollywood Park. On Thursday, CDSN withdrew all of its signals from tracks in the cooperative.
For the second straight day, racing at Aqueduct was canceled Friday because of high winds. The track remained open for simulcasting. Aqueduct had canceled Thursday's card for the same reason.
The Aqueduct jockey colony met about 30 minutes before the first race and decided conditions were not safe under which to ride.
"We made the decision as a group," said jockey Edgar Prado. "We prefer to lose one day than to lose a couple of months due to injury."
ARCADIA, Calif. - Father Time finally caught up with 10-year-old gelding Men's Exclusive, who has been retired after winning 11 races and $1,447,928 from 47 starts. A durable California-bred, Men's Exclusive ran for the time last time Nov. 8 at Santa Anita, where he bled and finished seventh in the California Cup Sprint.
Men's Exclusive was scheduled to leave Santa Anita on Saturday, and retire to a ranch in Corona, Calif.
His owner-breeder, Gene Reed, died Sept. 13. Men's Exclusive ran twice afterward.
