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Rager Posts Upset In Oakland Stakes At Golden Gate Fields

4-year-old gelding Rager produced a powerful kick from midfield and defeated six other foes in the feature race on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields in Berkley, Calif., the $50,000 Oakland Stakes for 3-year-olds and upward. Veteran jockey Frank Alvarado guided the son of Into Mischief to victory.

Sent off at odds of 8-1, Rager sat in midfield before starting a move midway on the far turn. Swinging for home, he was within three lengths of the lead before picking off rivals, hitting the front with a sixteenth of a mile to go, and finishing the job for a length score. He stopped the clock for six furlongs on Tapeta in 1:09.19.

Runner up finished Italiano completed a pricey exacta while Southern California shipper Ultimate Bango ran third. In Our A, sent off at post time as the 8-5 favorite, hopped in the air at the start and lost significant ground from the onset. He passed runners down the stretch and hit the wire fourth. Border Town, Papa's Golden Boy, and I'mgonnabesomebody completed the field.

Rager continues a phenomenal fall meet for trainer Tim McCanna, who has won with 11 of 27 starters. Rager paid $19.00 to win, $9.00 to place, and $4.60 to show. Italiano returned $18.80 to place and $8.40 to show while Ultimate Bango paid $3.40 to show. With the stakes win, Rager improved his lifetime record to four wins, three seconds, and four third-place finishes from 19 lifetime starts, with career earnings of $187,010. In August, McCanna and owners Jethorse LLC claimed Rager for $40,000 out of an allowance race at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif. Since then, he was run twice for Team McCanna: a win in the Oakland Stakes and a runner-up finish behind high-level claimers last month.

Live racing resumes at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday afternoon with a nine-race program. First post is 12:45 pm PT. Next week, Golden Gate offers four live race days: a Thanksgiving program with an early first post of 11:15 AM, and Friday-Sunday cards with first post at the standard 12:45 pm time slot. The feature race on Friday, the $50,000 Golden Gate Debutante, overfilled and has been split into two divisions. The marquee race on Saturday is the signature race of the meeting, the $100,000 Grade 3 Berkeley Handicap for three-year-olds and upward at one mile and a sixteenth. Both stakes will be run on the main track Tapeta.

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Azul Coast Bounces Back From Poor Showing In Awesome Again To Take Native Diver

Seventh last-out in the Grade 1 Awesome Again, Azul Coast bounced back from that lackluster performance to earn his first graded stakes victory in the Grade 3 Native Diver at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

Under jockey Flavien Prat, Azul Coast bumped Bal Harbour out of the gate and then settled back last of six early in the 1 1/18-mile stakes as fellow Baffert trainees Ax Man and Eight Rings ran on the lead around the first turn and in the backstretch. As the field approached the far turn, Azul Coast moved up on the outside, improving his position from last to fourth.

Azul Coast went four-wide into the far turn, entering the stretch with Ax Man and Eight Rings on his inside. Ax Man tired and faded out of contention while Eight Rings and Azul Coast were head-to-head down the first half of the stretch, the latter eventually gaining a narrow lead as Kiss Today Goodbye mounted his bid to the outside. At the wire, Azul Coast was able to hold on by a neck over Kiss Today Goodbye, with Eight Rings third.

The final time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:50.55. Find this race's chart here.

Azul Coast paid $8.40, $4.60, and $2.60. Kiss Today Goodbye paid $5.20 and $2.80. Eight Rings paid $2.20.

“'Azul' runs his best races down here. He likes this track and he ran really impressive. When I ran him in the Awesome Again, he just laid an egg, he was up there close and I was really disappointed, but he was chasing Medina Spirit. I had no idea how it would set up, they were all on their own. I told the jockeys (he had three horses in the race) you guys ride your own races and hopefully we'll run 1-2-3. I'm happy for the connections, the well has been a little dry lately. Main thing is that we got the 'w'…” trainer Bob Baffert said after the race.

“We were in a good spot for the whole trip. I could tell the pace was only moderate, so I moved him up closer near the three-eighths (pole). Then when we went we were in good position and he was ready. A good win,” jockey Flavien Prat told the Del Mar Press Office after the Native Diver.

Bred in Kentucky by SF Bloodstock LLC, the 4-year-old colt is by Super Saver out of the Sky Mesa mare Sky Treasure. He is owned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman. Consigned by Woods Edge Farm, Azul Coast was purchased by Three Amigos for $320,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. With this win in the G3 Native Diver, Azul Coast has two wins in four starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of four wins in 10 starts and career earnings of $221,280.

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DQ Gives Kaely’s Brother His First Stakes Win In Jean Lafitte

Delta Downs in Vinton, La., hosted the $100,000 Jean Lafitte Stakes on Saturday afternoon and the one-mile race for 2-year-olds had plenty of drama. The heavy favorite Kaely's Brother finished second under the wire but was awarded the win after the stewards disqualified Waita Minute Hayes for interference. It was the Brad Cox trainee's first win in stakes company after breaking his maiden at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., on October 9.

The Jean Lafitte field of 10 was dispatched in good order before Indefensible took the early lead and volleyed with Dancin With Angels through fractional times of :23.25 for the opening quarter mile and :47.79 for the half. As the field approached the second turn, Waita Minute Hays launched a wide bid to take the lead after going three-quarters of a mile in 1:13.95 as Kaely's Brother followed him into the stretch while positioned at the rail.

Through the homestretch, Waita Minute Hayes began to drift into the path of Kaely's Brother. Inside the sixteenth pole, jockey Tim Thornton was forced to steady his mount and alter course late before finishing 2-1/2 lengths behind Waita Minute Hayes, and a head in front of third-place finisher Vodka Gimlet. As the horses pulled up after the wire, Thornton claimed foul against Waita Minute Hayes and jockey Ashley Broussard. The objection was held up and Waita Minute Hayes was disqualified from first and place second.

The final time of the Jean Lafitte was 1:27.72. The race was contested on a fast track.

The win by Kaely's Brother marked the second of his three-race career. He earned $60,000 for the effort which raised his bankroll to $110,737.

Bred in Kentucky by his owner Dean Maltzman, Kaely's Brother is a 2-year-old bay colt by Twirling Candy, out of the Yes It's True mare Policy of Truth.

Sent to the gate at odds of 3-5, Kaely's Brother paid $3.20 to win, $2.40 to place, and $2.20 to show. Waita Minute Hayes was worth $5.40 to place and $4 to show. Vodka Gimlet returned $6.40 to show.

Delta Downs will now embark on a special week of racing which includes live racing on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, November 23 – 27. The track will be dark on Thanksgiving Thursday, November 25. The first post time each day next week will be at 12:55 pm.

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Laurel’s Claiming Crown Preview Winners Among Nominees For Claiming Crown Races At Gulfstream

All five of Laurel Park's Claiming Crown preview race winners as well as several Maryland-based horsemen are among the nominees for the 23rd Claiming Crown to be held Saturday, Dec. 4 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

Laurel Park in Laurel, Md., played host to Claiming Crown Preview Day Oct. 10, where preview race winners each earned an automatic berth to the Claiming Crown as well as a $2,500 stipend toward travel costs to South Florida.

Stablemates Belgrano and Aequor, trained by 79-year-old Frank Russo, were respectively nominated to the $90,000 Canterbury for 3-year-olds and up which have not started for a claiming price of $25,000 or less in 2020-21 sprinting five furlongs on turf and $75,000 Express for 3-year-olds and up that have run for a tag of $8,000 or less lifetime going six furlongs.

Peace Sign Stables' Belgrano has strung together three consecutive wins including the Rainbow Heir Aug. 28 at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., in his preview day prep. The 7-year-old gelding ran seventh in last year's Canterbury. Also among the 33 nominations is Winning Stables, Inc.'s Xy Speed, neck winner of the Oct. 2 Laurel Dash for trainer Gerald Bennett.

Morning Moon Farm's Aequor edged Sevier by a neck in the Express preview, his second straight win. Formerly based at Gulfstream, the 6-year-old gelding ran ninth in the 2019 Claiming Crown Jewel. Sevier, from the barn of trainer Jamie Ness, is also one of 24 Express nominees.

Travin Stables' Lookin At Roses rebounded from a fourth behind Magic Michael in the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup to win Laurel's preview for the $85,000 Rapid Transit, a seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up that have started for a claiming price of $16,000 or less in 2020-21. Ness-trained Magic Michael is nominated to the $125,000 Claiming Crown Jewel as well as Laurel's $100,000 Richard W. Small Nov. 27, both going 1 1/8 miles.

Other Rapid Transit nominees include Silent Malice and Grade 3 winner Tusk. Silent Malice is one of three horses nominated to Claiming Crown races by Laurel-based trainer Rodolpho Sanchez-Salomon, along with Foggy Dreams ($95,000 Tiara) and Calypso Ghost ($80,000 Glass Slipper). Trainer Mary Eppler, based at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., also nominated Tusk to the Jewel and $95,000 Emerald, Seranade a Kitten to the Tiara and Heza Kitten to the Emerald.

Bruno Schickendanz's Mandate, trained by Robert J.W. Johnston, is among 50 nominees to the 1 1/16-mile Emerald on turf for 3-year-olds and up which have started for a claiming price of $25,000 or less in 2020-21. The 4-year-old Blame gelding won Laurel's Emerald preview by 3 ½ lengths and followed up with a victory in the one-mile Artie Schiller on the grass at Aqueduct Nov. 13.

You Must Chill and Just Whistle, respectively third and fifth in Laurel's Emerald preview for trainers Ness and Michael Matz, are also nominated, as is Ten Strike Racing's Caribbean, a 7-year-old Australia-bred gelding claimed for $40,000 out of his most recent start Marc 19 at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., by Laurel-based trainer Lacey Gaudet. Caribbean is also nominated to the Jewel.

Team Valor International's Beantown Baby, from the Fair Hill, Md. barn of trainer Arnaud Delacour, was a popular neck winner of Laurel's Distaff Dash preview, her third win from five 2021 starts. The $90,000 Distaff Dash at five-furlongs on turf is for fillies and mares 3 and up that have started for a claiming price of $25,000 or less in 2020-21.

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