ALTOONA, Iowa - Plum Sober ($3.40) stalked the pace to the stretch before drawing off through the final furlong to score a 4 1/4-length victory over War Reality in Saturday's $72,120 Iowa Cradle for 2-year-olds on Iowa Classic Night at Prairie Meadows. The race was one of six stakes on the card for Iowa-breds.
New York Harbor ($63) rallied from next to last to win the $100,000 Ketel One El Joven at Retama Park near San Antonio on Saturday night. It was a half-length back in second to Oncearoundtwice, who finished three lengths clear of favorite There Goes Rocket.
The race was one of two 2-year-old turf stakes on the card. In the $100,000 La Senorita, Topango ($9.60) was prominent throughout for a head win over Homemaker. Bluegrass Sara, the even-money favorite, stumbled at the half-mile pole, then was pulled up in the stretch and walked off.
FLORENCE, Ky. - The big names are back from Saratoga, and Keeneland is just around the corner. A 10-race Wednesday card starts Turfway Park's fall meet, a full month of racing marked by considerably better weather and a higher caliber of racing than what Turfway fans normally experience when wintertime rolls around.
FLORENCE, Ky. - Ever since the Kentucky Cup was inaugurated in 1994, some of the sport's most high-profile trainers have supported the event by bringing their "name" horses.
That trend appears likely to hold true for the 10th running of the Kentucky Cup on Sept. 13. Bob Baffert has said he intends to ship Congaree, one of the top handicap horses in training, to Turfway for the marquee race of the program, the Grade 2, $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mobil ($2.50) got an easy lead and never looked back, capturing the $131,875 Halton, one of six stakes on Monday's Woodbine card restricted to graduates of local yearling sales.
Mobil set slow fractions in the nine-furlong turf race for 3-year-olds and up, and held off longshot Lenny the Lender in the stretch to win by 3 1/2 lengths. Over a firm course, the final time was 1:48.21.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Halfbridled scored her first stakes win in Saturday's $250,000 , displaying the versatility of an older filly or mare not a 2-year-old making her second start.
Halfbridled ($5.20) finished seven furlongs in 1:22.20, winning by five lengths over Hollywood Story, a maiden. Victory U.S.A., the 3-5 favorite, never reached the lead as expected and finished third in the field of six, missing second by a nose.
DEL MAR, Calif. - So far, Dirty Diana has been the stakes star for trainer Bob Baffert at Del Mar.
Her win in the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes on July 25 is his lone stakes win of a meeting in which he is well on his way to a seventh consecutive overall training title.
Last year, Baffert won five stakes at Del Mar; in 2000, he won a career-best 13.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Prior to Sunday's Grade 1 Forego Handicap at Saratoga, trainer Bobby Frankel was not planning to point Aldebaran to the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
But after watching a razor sharp Aldebaran take command of the seven-furlong Forego by the eighth pole, Frankel may have changed his mind. Under Jerry Bailey, Aldebaran cruised into contention around the turn while racing along the rail, tipped into the two path turning for home, collared the pace-setting Najran approaching the eighth pole and drew off to a 4 3/4-length victory in the $250,000 .
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Spruce Run won the $50,000 Bob Harding Stakes to cap a bittersweet day at Monmouth Park for the Linda Rice stable.
They lost a promising colt earlier on the card when Sir Lochinvar fractured a sesamoid. The 3-year-old's status remained uncertain Sunday evening.
"He might be salvageable," said Sam Randazzo, who supervises Rice's Monmouth division. "That's a shame, because the horse was cut out to be something nice."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Brass in Pocket overcame a troubled break to take the $173,375 Seaway Stakes for fillies and mares at Woodbine Sunday.
Brass in Pocket rushed up to contest the pace after getting away slowly in the seven-furlong dash. She dueled with favored Whiletheiron'shot through fractions of :22.60 and :45.56, before assuming command at the quarter pole.
Brass in Pocket held Whiletheiron'shot and El Prado Essence at bay in the stretch, and prevailed by a length and a quarter over the latter. The final time was 1:24.45.
