Horse Racing News on September 22, 2012

After an unsuccessful Triple Crown campaign, Optimizer looks to have found his home back on the turf. The D. Wayne Lukas-trained colt captured his first graded stakes win in record fashion on Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Kent Stakes.

J. Paul Reddam's Handsome Mike parlayed a front-running trip into a two-length upset in Saturday's Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby, winning as the 19-1 longest shot at Parx Racing.

Last year's unbeaten champion two-year-old filly My Miss Aurelia outdueled pro tem divisional leader Questing by a head in Saturday's $971,200 Cotillion Stakes at Parx, in a climactic finish to the first Grade 1 event ever staged in Pennsylvania.

Dust and Diamonds, getting good at the right time, disposed of her better-known rivals Musical Romance and Turbulent Descent with ease in capturing the $200,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap by 1 1/4 lengths at Belmont Park Sept. 22.