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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Street Sense, Hard Spun to Meet in Kentucky Cup Classic


Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense and Derby runner-up Hard Spun will meet for the third time in next Saturday’s $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park.

Both 3-year-olds will use the 1 1/8-mile race on Polytrack as a prep for the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Monmouth Park Oct. 27. The two multiple graded stakes winners lead the list of 27 nominees for the Kentucky Cup Classic.

Street Sense will be looking for his third consecutive victory after losing by a nose to Curlin in the Preakness Stakes May 19. Street Sense has never won on a synthetic surface. He finished third on the Keeneland Polytrack as a 2-year-old, then missed by a nose again at Keeneland in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes May 14.

Street Sense, who worked five furlongs Sept. 19 at Churchill Downs in 1:00.60, has won six graded stakes and earned more than $4 million in his career.

Hard Spun has raced once over Polytrack, a 3 1/4-length victory in the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes at Turfway March 24. After racing in all three legs of the Triple Crown, the son of Danzig-Turkish Tryst placed second in the $1-million Haskell Invitational Handicap, and most recently won the seven-furlong Kings Bishop Stakes at Saratoga by a length-and-a-half.

Hard Spun worked five furlongs in 1:01.40 at Delaware Park Sept. 17 for trainer Larry Jones. He has earned almost $1.4 million in 11 starts.

The Kentucky Cup Classic will be one of five stakes on Turfway’s Kentucky Cup Day of Champions card.


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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Rags to Riches Out for Year With a Leg Injury


Rags to Riches, who in June became only the third filly to capture the Belmont Stakes, sustained a hairline fracture to her right front leg Saturday in finishing second in the Grade I Gazelle Stakes at Belmont Park.

Rags to Riches’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, said that the injury, which is in the pastern, was not career-ending and that the filly was expected to make a full recovery but would not race again until 2008.

On Saturday, in her first race since becoming the first filly in 102 years to win the Belmont Stakes, Rags to Riches finished a half-length behind Lear’s Princess in the mile-and-an-eighth Gazelle.

“It appears as though she sustained the injury during the stretch run,” Pletcher said.

He said that “she cooled out fine following the race” but “appeared to be slightly off this morning.” X-rays discovered the hairline fracture.

Rags to Riches will ship to Ashford Stud in Kentucky for six weeks of stall rest, Pletcher said, before being re-examined to determine when, and perhaps whether, she may return to the racetrack.

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Monday, September 17, 2007

Shakespeare wins Woodbine Mile

Shakespeare won the $1-million Woodbine Mile at Woodbine yesterday, slipping up the rail and surprising the leaders to win with authority by a length over Kip Deville. Long-shot Galantas, owned by Earle Mack - the New Yorker who owned Canadian Triple Crown winner Peteski - was third at odds of 21 to 1.

Shakespeare wrote an incredible chapter to his career with the win. He was an undefeated turf star who went into the Breeders' Cup Turf at Belmont Stakes two years ago as the second favourite, but it was the only dismal race of his career. He finished 12th, more than 45 lengths behind the winner, and spent 21 months on the shelf trying to recover from a tendon injury on his left front.

Justice said the six-year-old has completely recovered, but he's had only one start under his belt since October of 2005, and that was in an allowance race at Saratoga about a month and a half ago. He won it with determination, running his final quarter in a lively 222/5 seconds.

Shakespeare's next stop will be the Breeders' Cup Mile, when racing's big circus sets up its tent at Monmouth Park late next month. A grandstand full of duly impressed bettors at Woodbine probably would take 9-5 on him at Monmouth right now.
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Thursday, September 06, 2007

Mott wins 27 races at Saratoga


SARATOGA SPRINGS - In the paddock before the Hopeful, the fans crowded around 3-5 favorite Ready's Image and 8-5 second choice Maimonides. As he was walked in the shade of one of the grand old trees, Majestic Warrior whinnied loudly and often, as if to say, "Hey, don't forget about me!"

He won't be ignored again. Storming from about 10 lengths back in the small field of four 2-year-old colts, Majestic Warrior ($15) ran down Ready's Image inside the eighth pole to win the 103rd running of the $250,000 Grade I stakes.

Owned by George Steinbrenner's Kinsman Stable, Majestic Warrior provided a giant cherry on top of trainer Bill Mott's six weeks of sundaes. Mott won a career-high 27 races at the Spa and won or tied for the meet training title for the ninth time. The homebred Majestic Warrior, a son of 2000 Test and Ballerina winner Dream Supreme, was the first Hopeful winner and only the second starter ever in the race for Mott, who until this summer was not known for winning with 2-year-olds.

"We came with the right one," he said. "Words can't describe (the meet) for me. This really tops it off."

Ready's Image, second by 2-1/4 lengths, was caught up in a front-end duel with Maimonides.




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