Horse Racing News

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Jaycito was withdrawn from Saturday's $1 million Santa Anita Derby on Friday afternoon by trainer Bob Baffert, who said the colt's bruised right front foot had not recovered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

Premier Pegasus, the early morning-line favorite in Saturday's Santa Anita Derby before being sidelined on Thursday because of a hairline fracture in the cannon bone of his left foreleg, underwent surgery to stabilize the injury on Friday.