Horse Racing News

If Will Take Charge hadn't secured an Eclipse Award as the nation's top 3-year-old already, his determined head victory over multiple Grade 1 winner Game On Dude in the Clark Handicap Nov. 29 certainly wrapped it up.

Better Lucky, who paid a record $72.20 when capturing the $250,000 Matriarch Stakes a year ago, will try to become only the second repeat winner in race history Dec. 1 at Betfair Hollywood Park.

In extending her Aqueduct Racetrack win streak to four straight victories, 5-year-old Royal Lahaina also nailed down the first graded stakes win of her career Nov. 29 in a 13-1 surprise.

Multiple Grade 1 winner Game On Dude and Travers Stakes victor Will Take Charge both drew well, considering their respective racing styles, when post positions were assigned for the $500,000-added Clark Handicap.

Grade III winner Madly Truly will return to Churchill Downs and dirt racing for the first time since her maiden special weight debut four races ago when she starts in the $150,000 Golden Rod Stakes Nov. 30.

It's rare to have a graded stakes for juvenile fillies this late in the season with only one starter that has stakes experience, but that's the case for the Demoiselle Stakes lineup Nov. 30 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Nashua Stakes winner Cairo Prince and Kentucky Derby Future Book One individual favorite Honor Code head the roster of nine runners signed up for the $400,000 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack Nov. 30.

Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Goldencents has been assigned 120 pounds and is the high weight among the nine expected starters for the Nov. 30 $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Paul and Andrena Van Doren's Rise Up, who rolled to a 6 ½-length victory for trainer Tom Amoss in the Oct. 26 Jean Lafitte Stakes at Delta Downs, continued to impress with a sparkling gate-to-wire triumph in the $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot.

A detailed report to the California Horse Racing Board at its Nov. 21 meeting concluded that the cluster of sudden deaths from Bob Baffert's Betfair Hollywood Park barn did not have any similarities to each other and had no single, identifiable cause.