MIAMI - The 12-horse field of turf specialists for Monday's $150,000 Miami Mile Breeders' Cup Handicap at Calder is loaded with stakes winners, including two who have previously won this Grade 3 race. But it may be a horse with no stakes experience at all, Last Stand, who has the best chance.
CINCINNATI - Dale Romans already has won training titles at Keeneland and Churchill Downs, so perhaps the next logical step for him is to come up with a horse to take him down the Kentucky Derby trail.
It remains to be seen whether that horse is Blushing Indian. But when the signature race of the River Downs meet, the $200,000 Cradle Stakes, is run Monday, there is a strong likelihood that Blushing Indian will emerge the winner - and thereby tempt Romans to start thinking about bigger and better things.
Hours before her wedding, trainer Lynette Ashby celebrated another special occasion. Tym Beau, a 21-1 longshot, rallied from off the pace to defeat 6-5 favorite Tabacchi by a length in the NATC Futurity at Delaware Park.
The $200,000 stakes was the biggest Thoroughbred race Ashby has ever won. She primarily trains Arabians.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Strut the Stage ($4.30) beat six United States shippers and three locals in the Grade 2, $337,200 Niagara Breeders' Cup Handicap, a 1 1/2-mile turf race at Woodbine.
Strut the Stage raced five lengths off a pair of dueling leaders, Mark One and Bowman Mill, on the backstretch, and moved into serious contention while four wide on the far turn. He took dead aim at 3-1 second choice Revved Up in the stretch, and hit the front at the eighth pole before edging away to prevail by 1 1/4 lengths.
Less than an hour after saddling In Rome to win the Bassinet Stakes at River Downs, trainer Dave Vance watched via simulcast as Reason to Talk posted a 12-1 upset in he $75,000 Dade Turf Classic at Ellis Park.
Reason to Talk, ridden by Jon Court, split horses in deep stretch before going on to a three-length win over front-running Two Dot Slew in a field of eight fillies and mares. Piconeach finished just a nose back in third, and May Gator, the 7-5 favorite, was a major factor to midstretch but weakened in the final furlong to finish in a dead heat for fourth.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Odds-on favorite Lindsay Jean ($3) did everything perfectly as she scored an easy victory in the $63,900 Autumn Leaves Handicap at Bay Meadows.
Lindsay Jean raced last early in the speed-laden field of five fillies and mares going one mile on the Longden Turf Course.
Lindsay Jean moved four wide into the stretch and was never seriously asked as she edged pacesetter Marty's Zee and Pheiffer by a half-length. Marty's Zee and Pheiffer dead-heated for second.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Just Michel settled just off the leaders for a half-mile while hung four wide, went up to make the lead under jockey Ricardo Feliciano, and widened out to a 2 1/4-length win in the $40,000 Ohio Debutante Handicap at Thistledown.
Just Michel completed six furlongs in 1:11.80 over a fast track and returned $3.20.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Jamie Woodington wanted to run 3-year-old Freedom's Honor against horses his own age, but with no suitable race available, Woodington decided to run him against older horses in Monday's $45,000 Castle Guard Stakes at Monmouth Park.
"You try not to run 3-year-olds against older company, but nothing for straight 3-year-olds was on the horizon, so we'll try this," Woodington said.
The Castle Guard is for New Jersey-breds, which gave Woodington more incentive to run Freedom's Honor. "I try and support the New Jersey-bred program," Woodington said.
After consistently trouncing the competition in the Ohio-bred ranks for two seasons, Hackendiffy is poised to try something completely different at Mountaineer Park.
The 3-year-old Hackendiffy, a five-time stakes winner racing at Thistledown and River Downs, is scheduled to make his turf debut and face older horses for the first time in the $75,000 Labor Day Handicap, one of two one-mile turf stakes on a 10-race holiday card.