Horse Racing News

Pace makes Win Willy's race, and when his trainer, Mac Robertson, saw the fractional time for the opening half-mile of the Grade 2, $350,000 Oaklawn Handicap, it made his day.

In the case of Liberian Freighter on Saturday, good things came to those who waited, and waited, and waited some more.

Trainer Todd Pletcher won a Kentucky Derby prep race Saturday. It just wasn't the one everyone expected.

Toby's Corner split horses inside the eighth pole and outfinished 20-1 Arthur's Tale to win the $1,000,000 Wood Memorial by a neck, as 1-9 favorite Uncle Mo faded late to wind up third after setting the pace.

Lilacs and Lace rebounded from a 12-length defeat in a lesser race just two weeks beforehand to stun some of the best 3-year-old fillies in North America with a 48-1 upset Saturday in the 74th running of the Grade 1, $400,000 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland.

Morning Line, who was denied in a heartbreaker in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile last November, broke through with his first top-level victory in Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct.

Upstart Separate Forest opened a substantial lead in her stakes debut and refused to give way to heavy favorite Unzip Me to win the Grade 3, $100,000 Las Cienegas Stakes by a neck on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita April 9.

Benefitting from a ground-saving trip and a patient ride from Luis Saez, Hot Summer slid through an opening along the rail in upper stretch and drew off to a victory in Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Comely Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.

Jaycito was withdrawn from Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Derby on Friday afternoon by trainer Bob Baffert, who said the colt's bruised right front foot had not recovered sufficiently to allow for a start.

To Honor and Serve, third in both the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby, is off the Kentucky Derby trail with a strain to the suspensory ligament of his left foreleg, trainer Bill Mott said late Friday afternoon.