(Edited Meadowlands Racetrack report)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Il Postino led the field at every call and drew off to win the $35,000 Grey Ghost Handicap by four lengths on Saturday night at Meadowlands Racetrack. 

A Halloween tradition, the Grey Ghost is a starter handicap reserved strictly for horses grey or roan in color.  Originally slated for the turf, the race was moved on to a muddy main track.  Il Postino, ridden by Pedro Cotto Jr., covered the mile and…

Ron Uchman
Hawthorne Race Course

STICKNEY, Ill. – Saturday marked the running of the Illinois Festival of Racing at Hawthorne Race Course as top Illinois runners competed in six state-bred stakes.

(Edited Keeneland Association report)

Lexington, Ky. – Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm’s Blame rallied from next to last to overtake even-money favorite Parading and win the 51st running of the $150,000 Fayette (Grade 2) by 1¼ lengths as Keeneland wrapped up its 17-day fall race meeting.

(Edited Oak Tree at Santa Anita report)

ARCADIA, Calif. – Zayat Stables’ Macias, a 2-year-old Purge colt trained by Bob Baffert, successfully made the transition into the stakes ranks Saturday when denying the closing bid of Hurricane Ike to take Oak Tree’s 35th running of the $60,413 Jack Goodman Stakes by a neck while negotiating six furlongs in 1:08.98.

Brian Skirka
NYRA/Aqueduct Racetrack

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Team Valor International’s Unbridled Belle made her Empire State finale a winning one Saturday by taking the 15th running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Turnback the Alarm at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The 6-year-old daughter of Broken Vow, who has now earned $1.88 million in her 24-race career, has maintained her form very well since her victory in the Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park in 2006.

Ed Golden
Oak Tree at Santa Anita

ARCADIA, Calif. – Champion Zenyatta took a step closer to a much-anticipated date with the boys in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Oak Tree a week from today, Saturday, Nov. 7, when she worked six furlongs at HollywoodPark this morning in 1:12.40, breezing, under regular rider Mike Smith.

Jenny Kellner
NYRA/Aqueduct Park

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When Hall of Fame trainer H. Allen Jerkens glanced at the tote board at Aqueduct Racetrack prior to Saturday’s 34th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Bold Ruler, he was somewhat perplexed that his Kelso winner, Le Grand Cru, was being sent off as the longest shot in the five-horse field.

NYRA release

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Apprentice jockey Amanda Casey will remain at North Shore University Hospital for a week to recover from a bruised liver suffered when she was kicked by her horse in the paddock at Aqueduct Racetrack on Friday.

Ashley Herriman
NYRA/Aqueduct Race Track

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In the final start of her career in Sunday’s 53rd running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Long Island Handicap, Darley Stable’s Criticism (GB) will return, in a sense, to the beginning.

In 2008, the daughter of Machiavellian scored her first U.S. victory in the 1½-mile turf contest and, with the exception of a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga this summer, she has finished no worse than…

(Edited Oak Tree at Santa Anita report)

ARCADIA, Calif.  – Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will send out two impressive recent maiden breakers Sunday to tackle a pair of stakes winners, Camille C and Well Deserved, in Oak Tree’s 31st running of the $58,000 Anoakia Stakes for 2-year-old California-bred fillies at six furlongs over Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride surface.