Derrianne must have felt right at home racing over a turf course that was less than firm.
An Irish-bred 3-year-old filly who raced exclusively in France for the first seven starts of her career, including four tries over courses rated yielding or soft, Derrianne ($5.20) relished the "good" surface at Pimlico Saturday as she drew off to a 1 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $147,000 Martha Washington Breeders' Cup.
Wet weather again foiled Delaware Park's plans to promote the Caesar Rodney Handicap for graded status.
Postponed a week ago by rain, the $194,000 Rodney was rescheduled, only to be moved from the turf to a sloppy main track. Seven of the 11 horses scratched, leaving 4-year-old Private Lap ($3.80) alone on the lead enroute to a 2 3/4-length victory over late closer Changeintheweather. The time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:48.89.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Willow Bunch ($5.10) made all the running over a sloppy track in the $162,375 La Lorgnette Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies at Woodbine.
Willow Bunch set fractions of 24.42 and 48.90 seconds while running in the two-path under jockey Patrick Husbands. The favorite, One Only Knows, pressed the pace along the rail, and was angled into the three-path heading into the far turn.
Feisty Bull ($9) shot to the lead under Carlos Lopez and never looked back, winning the $50,000 Navajo Princess for 3-year-old fillies at Monmouth Park by 3 1/4 lengths over runner-up 26-1 shot Nault.
Feisty Bull, who came into the race off a similar front-running win in the $50,000 Twin Lights on Aug. 16, covered the 1 1/16 miles on turf in 1:45.23. The Michael W. Dickinson-trained odds-on favored entry of Kosade (sixth) and Sarie Marais (ninth) never threatened.
The Solano County Board of Supervisors, by a unanimous 5-0 vote, on Tuesday gave the Solano County Fair Board permission to enter negotiations with the Mills Corporation to develop its property.
Kim Myrman, general manager of the Solano County Fair, said that racing would continue there for two or three years. Myrman said the board and Mills would enter the first step of negotiations to draw up a memorandum of intent, which would cover responsibilities, expectations, and a time frame for potential development.
ARCADIA, Calif. - As first impressions go, this is as good as it gets.
Santa Anita's Oak Tree Racing Association, which will play host to the 20th Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships on Oct. 25, opens its 32-day meeting on Sunday with four graded stakes races that feature the current favorites for three Breeders' Cup races, including the First Lady of California racing, 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri.
ARCADIA, Calif. - In her debut, she swooped past the field and drew clear. In her next start, she came through the inside without flinching. Two starts into her career, Halfbridled has scored two runaway victories while displaying a level of maturity that California's gubernatorial candidates would be wise to emulate.
As such, Halfbridled is ranked at the top of the 2-year-old filly division, and has been compared, both in performance and physical presence, to former champion Phone Chatter.
ARCADIA, Calif. - In the wrong fashion, Storming Home introduced himself to the American sporting public in August when he veered out sharply in the final strides of the Arlington Million and unseated jockey Gary Stevens.
The incident made national news because Stevens, a star in the movie "Seabiscuit," suffered a collapsed lung that left him sidelined for nearly three weeks.
Storming Home was disqualified from first to fourth, his first loss in the United States after two stakes wins at Hollywood Park in the spring.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Tates Creek is a millionaire, a winner of 10 of 15 starts and a major stakes winner in California and New York.
Despite those credentials, she is left with something to prove as the strong favorite in Sunday's $500,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Oak Tree at Santa Anita.
The Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon is Tates Creek's first start at 1 1/4 miles on turf, and the outcome will be a determining factor in whether she is pointed for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.
ARCADIA, Calif. - When the first Breeders' Cup was held in 1984, Chief's Crown was sent west from New York for his final Breeders' Cup prep race. He won the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting, then won the inaugural Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Hollywood Park.
Chief's Crown has turned out to be the exception rather than the norm. Very few horses based outside California have shipped in for preps in years when the Breeders' Cup has been held on the West Coast. That trend continues this year.
