Sorrento Stakes

Dreamfyre (f, 2, Flameaway--Appreciating, by Sky Mesa) may not have been the GIII Sorrento S. favorite behind 'TDN Rising Star' Benedetta (City of Light) and flashy Baffert/Zedan runner Dua (Arrogate), but she ran like it, controlling the 2-year-old filly contest from pillar to post. In Del Mar's co-feature Saturday, Dreamfyre broke like a shot from the inside post and immediately put daylight on the rest, clicking off early fractions in :21.74 and :45.10. Benedetta and Dua followed with the rest of the field stretched out well behind. Coming off the...

Perhaps no trainer felt the loss of Arlington Park more keenly than Chad Brown, who had dominated the historic track's signature Arlington Million Day card for the past decade, but the multiple Eclipse Award winner will have a pair of runners as he tries to keep the momentum going at the relocated--and truncated--Million card at Churchill Downs Saturday. Currently leading North American trainers with 10 Grade I wins on the year, Brown will be in search of a record-extending fifth victory in the Million when he sends out recent GIII...

Elm Drive took command of the Angels Flight S. and never looked like anything but the winner in an eye-catching 3-year-old bow reminiscent of her early juvenile form. As brilliant as she was on unveiling June 26 at Los Alamitos, where she dominated a five furlong field of maidens by eight easy lengths, and then a head victorious in Del Mar's GII Sorrento S. Aug. 6 over eventual GISW Eda (Munnings), she was as uncharacteristically dull in her prior two starts. Eased to a distant seventh in the GI Del...

Elm Drive became the first black-type winner for her freshman sire Mohaymen with a gutsy score in the Sorrento Friday evening at Del Mar. Wiring the field by eight lengths in her debut at Los Alamitos June 26, she was the 2-1 co-second-choice along with Eda. Away alertly, Elm Drive was overtaken by 70-1 shot First Promise (First Samurai) and pressed from second through a first quarter in :22 flat. The bay took control on the backstretch run and was soon joined by an eager Eda, who made an eye-catching...

Paul Sharp thought he had a good group of 2-year-olds at his farm over the winter and those trainees are proving the Ocala horseman right with a string of five maiden winners in the last five days, plus two graded stakes placings at Del Mar and Saratoga. "It always gives us a lot of gratification when these horses go on to win," Sharp said Wednesday, shortly after Ava's Grace (Laoban)'s third-place finish in the GII Adirondack S. at Saratoga. "They can win first or second time out and usually the...

My Girl Red, who became the first winner from her freshman sire (by Afleet Alex)'s small first crop when she aired by 4 1/4 lengths at Santa Anita June 14, ran to short odds in Friday evening's GII Sorrento S. to become his first stakes and graded stakes winner as well. Campaigned by the same connections who raced the 2014 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile S. winner and 2015 GII Jim Dandy S. winner, the bay out-footed her five rivals in the early scramble for position to take a narrow advantage...

When signing for a $340,000 Uncle Mo filly at this year's OBS March Sale, Dennis O'Neill, noted bloodstock advisor and brother of trainer Doug O'Neill, told the TDN's Steve Sherack that he "kept telling [owner] Paul [Reddam] that she was my female Nyquist." The April foal, now named Get On the Bus, looks a live chance on debut as she breaks from the rail in Friday's GII Sorrento S. at Del Mar. The April foal, produced by a winning half-sister to G1 Dubai World Cup hero African Story (GB) (Pivotal...