Horse Racing News

Four of the nine horses entered in Saturday's $250,000 Hill 'n' Dale Cigar Mile are coming out of less-than-stellar performances in Breeders' Cup races run three weeks ago at Churchill Downs.

Steve Asmussen has trained the last three winners of the Horse of the Year title in North America, those being Curlin (2007-08) and Rachel Alexandra (2009), both of them owned primarily by the Stonestreet Stables of Jess Jackson.

Cindy Jones will look to put an exclamation point on her brief, albeit successful, one-year training career on Saturday when she runs No Such Word in the Grade 1, $250,000 Gazelle Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.

Dundalk Dust, a 3-year-old Illinois-bred filly who was last of six down the backstretch, blew away her five older rivals with a sensational stretch run Thursday in a rain-soaked 95th running of the Grade 2, $161,250 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs.

For more than a month, Qualia has been all dressed up with nowhere to run. Three weeks ago, she failed to crack into the field for the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Two weeks ago, an overnight stakes at Aqueduct failed to fill.

When Wasted Tears came to California for the first time in August, she won the Grade 2 John Mabee Stakes by a nose at Del Mar, the smallest margin of victory in her 17-race career.

Gio Ponti, the dual Eclipse Award winner of 2009, will remain in training next year as a 6-year-old with his first major objective being the Dubai World Cup on March 26, owner Shane Ryan announced in a press release Tuesday afternoon.

Garrett Gomez, a two-time Eclipse Award winner who won three Breeders' Cup races earlier this month, tops a list of five finalists for the 62nd George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, Santa Anita announced on Tuesday.

Sebastian Flyte will start in Sunday's $250,000 Hollywood Derby, and this time trainer Ben Cecil had no trouble finding a jockey well in advance. Joel Rosario, who through Sunday led the jockey's standings at the fall meeting, has the mount.

Trainer Steve Specht's fall meeting at Golden Gate Fields has been a lot like the racing career of his entrant in Friday's Grade 3, $100,000 All American, Massone.