Mona de Momma defeated Mi Chiamano Mimi by 2 1/2 lengths to win the $41,120 feature for fillies and mares on Thursday at Santa Anitas Oak Tree meeting.

With jockey Joe Talamo subbing for flu-ridden Rafael Bejarano, Mona de Momma ran 6 furlongs in 1:09.00 and paid $5.40, $2.40 and $2.20.

Mi Chiamano Mimi returned $2.80 and $2.20 as the 7-5 wagering favorite who hadnt raced in nearly a year. Sleep Tight was another 1 1/2 lengths back in third and paid $2.40 to show.

The victory, worth $24,000, increased Mona de Mommas career earnings to $108,920, with three wins in six starts.

The Breeders Cup is offering a new betting proposition involving the $5 million Classic and $2 million Ladies Classic, and another wager on the jockey who wins the most races during the two-day event at Santa Anita.

Bettors can try to correctly select the winner of the Ladies Classic on Nov. 6 and the Classic on Nov. 7 in the new daily double wager.

The Head2Head Jockey Bet will open for advance wagering on Nov. 5 and will close before the running of the Marathon the next day. It will cover the 14 Breeders Cup races and a morning line will be published.

Also being offered are two all-Breeders Cup Pick Sixes, 10-cent superfectas, rolling Pick 3s and $5.5 million in guaranteed pools.

Last year, more than $155 million was wagered on the event.

Precursor led all the way in the slop Wednesday, beating Bad Action by 1 lengths in the $64,950 Proud Truth Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.

Trained by Tom Albertrani, Precursor improved to 3 for 13 with all three wins coming on wet tracks. Rajiv Maragh was aboard as Precursor ran 1 1-8 miles in 1:52.28, paying $9.40, $4.30 and $2.70 on the opening day of the meet.

Bad Action rallied from last in the five-horse field to return $4.60 and $3. Bunker Hill, the 2-1 favorite, pressed Precursor for three quarters of a mile before fading to third, paying $2.60.

Harness racing driver Jeff Gregory has scored his 6,000th win.

The 43-year-old set the mark Wednesday when he drove Montana Steel to victory in the third race at Freehold Raceway. The horse was trained by Richard Norman, who also trained the horse Gregory drove for his 5,000th win.

The Saratoga, N.Y., native has been driving horses professionally for 25 years. His most notable win came when he steered Jalopy to victory in the 2002 Hambletonian Oaks.

Dance With Gable led all the way in winning Wednesdays $54,280 California Sky Stakes by a length at Santa Anitas Oak Tree meeting.

Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Dance With Gable ran 6 1/2 furlongs on the turf in 1:11.97 and paid $11, $5.60 and $4.

Big Bad Leroybrown returned $7.20 and $3.60, while filly Flashover was another three-quarters of a length back in third and paid $3.60 to show.

Dance With Gable was claimed for $40,000 in August. The victory, worth $32,328, increased the 5-year-old geldings career earnings to $222,325, with eight wins in 19 starts.

The sign on the racetrack video board reads Zero Minutes to Post, but horse bettors know that doesnt mean wagering is cut off. That happens perhaps several minutes later, just before the horses break from the starting gate.

Racing officials in Kentucky are weighing whether to prohibit this widely accepted practice of betting after post time as a way to improve the integrity of horse gambling, or at least the perception that their sport is clean. A subcommittee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission reccommended Tuesday on that the bodys full membership vote to ban betting past post time.

The proposal sparked a lengthy debate at the commissions monthly meeting over whether changing the rules would actually further cripple the cash-strapped racetracks.

Lets make sure were not doing something that shoots Kentucky racing in the foot, said Kevin Flanery, president of Churchill Downsthe host track for the Kentucky Derby.

Commission chairman Robert Beck said there would be a public hearing on the topic in the next 30 days, followed by what figures to be one of the most divisive votes in years for the panel made up of trainers, breeders, veterinarians and others.

Flanery says Churchill tried to eliminate betting after post time during its fall meet in 2002 to disastrous results. Betting revenues dipped around 20 percent because many of the high rollers like to watch how the horses enter the gate before placing their final wagers, he said.

If Kentucky were to cut off bets at post time while other states allow them to be placed up to the second the race starts, Flanery said it could confuse bettors and cost Kentucky tracks and horsemen significant money.

Tom Ludt of Vinery Farm, who chaired the subgroup that recommended the change, said he understood the concerns about revenues but insisted it was a necessary change to improve the integrity of betting in the eyes of the public. Ultimately, he predicted, Kentucky would become a model for the change, and other states would follow.

Its a hot potato nobody wants to deal with, Ludt said. Behind closed doors, everybody says its a good idea, but publicly nobody wants to take a stand.

The panel began considering the issue last year after prominent bettor Mike Maloney sought to prove that it was possible to cheat the wagering system and place a wager after the horses broke from the gatea practice technically not allowed anywhere.

Maloney was able to place his small-dollar bet at Keeneland for a race simulcast from New Orleans after the horses left the gate but before the betting window at the Lexington track closed. He wasnt trying to profit from the miscue and reported it immediately to racing officials.

He has since become a leading spokesman in the industry for ramping up betting security, pushing for a new electronic monitoring system and advocating the ban on betting past post time.

Maloney, who appeared at the meeting Tuesday, said he believes Kentucky tracks may ultimately help attract more bettors by producing a product perceived as more equitable.

The main thing in bettors minds today are am I getting a fair shake? he said. Can I trust this betting system? We will have differentiated our product, and we will benefit from that.

Sea The Stars will be sent to the Aga Khans thoroughbred breeding farm in Ireland to stand at stud.

The 3-year-old colt owned by Hong Kong-based Christopher Tsui and family was retired after winning the Prix de lArc de Triomphe earlier this month, the horses sixth consecutive Group 1 victory.

The owners said Tuesday the stud fee will be $138,000. Aga Khan operates Gilltown Stud at County Kildare.

Sea The Stars also won the English 2,000 Guineas and the English Derby in earning $6,797,494. The horse was under consideration to run in next weekends Breeders Cup Classic before he was retired.

The Aga Khan said in a news release that he would breed his champion filly Zarkova, winner of the 2008 Arc winner, to Sea The Stars.

Turfway Park in northern Kentucky plans to schedule 81 live race cards in 2010, according to the dates request the track filed with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, a 33-date reduction from the 114 live dates the track scheduled in 2009.

The request by Turfway underlines the shifts on the Kentucky racing circuit as tracks attempt to mold their racing calendars to fit an era of declining handle and increased competition for entries from tracks in Indiana and Pennsylvania that have recently opened or have expanded their race meets because of subsidies from slot machines. In all, Kentuckys five Thoroughbred tracks applied for 206 live racing dates for 2010, down from 273 requested for this year (although only 239 dates were scheduled to be run).

The requests will be considered at a meeting of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday. On Monday, a subcommittee of the commission asked representatives of the racetracks to attend a meeting in order to answer any questions commissioners might have about the requests in advance of the Tuesday meeting.

Commissioners who attended the meeting voted afterwards to recommend that the full commission approve the dates as requested by the tracks. By and large, the commissioners said they sympathized with the racetracks efforts to increase or maintain field size by reducing the number of opportunities for trainers and owners to run their horses.

Under its request, Turfway would pare the brunt of the race days by running three-day race weeks in January and February and shifting to four-day race weeks in March. The track has typically run five-day weeks during all months of live racing.

Churchill Downs requested 62 live racing dates, with 42 during its spring meet and 20 during its fall meet. In 2009, Churchill was scheduled to run 73 live race dates during its spring and fall meets, but the track went to the commission during last years spring stand to ask permission to pare seven Wednesday cards from the remainder of the spring schedule. As a result, Churchill will run 66 live race dates.

Ellis Park applied for 27 race dates, down from its 48-date request for 2009. Before opening its 2009 meet, however, Ellis Park went to the commission to ask for permission to pare its meet to 23 days, a request the commission approved. After the meet started, Ellis asked for permission to add five days back, a request that was also approved.

Keeneland requested its usual 32 race dates, and Kentucky Downs asked for four dates.

Rahys Attorney has been unable to match his heroics of last season, when he won the Woodbine Mile and was voted Canadas champion turf horse.
But Rahys Attorney, a homebred Ontario-sired 5-year-old gelding trained by Ian Black, ended his 2009 campaign on a high note and with the promise of more to come next year when he captured last Saturdays $125,400 Bunty Lawless Stakes.

It was nice to see him back in a position where he could win, said Black, who had watched Rahys Attorney finish seventh in the Woodbine Mile and sixth in the Sky Classic in his last two starts.

Rahys Attorney, ridden by Robert Landry for the first time since his seasonal bow in 2008, assumed a stalking position early in the one-mile Bunty Lawless and dueled with Sand Cove in the stretch before drawing off to a three-length victory in the soft going.

He was a pretty handy winner, Id say, Black said.

Rahys Attorney, who has spent previous winters in Ontario, will be heading to Florida this year.

Well maybe start him at Gulfstream or at Keeneland on the way back, before we take a run at the Connaught Cup, Black said.

Rahys Attorney won the Grade 3 Connaught Cup over 1 1/16 miles of turf last year and finished second, beaten a head, in this years renewal.

Black has 10 stalls at Payson Park, where he will be maintaining a winter base for the first time.

I have a couple of Canadian-bred 2-year-old fillies turning 3 who look like theyre okay, Black said. If theyre going to be Woodbine Oaks fillies, Ill have to get a start into them down there.

Those fillies are Pinafore Lady, who is a half-sister to Southdale, and Copperelle.

Black had sent Southdale down to Payson Park with trainer Roger Attfield to prepare for the Queens Plate, but the colt was injured during his second-place finish in the Plate Trial.

Hes just started back training here, Black said.

In the meantime, Black plans to be active over the final six weeks of the Woodbine meeting, including stakes engagements for Glitter Rox and Stormy Lord.

Glitter Rox, a 5-year-old mare, is headed for the $150,000 Ontario Fashion, an open six-furlong race for fillies and mares here Sunday.

It might be a little short for her, said Black, who sent out Glitter Rox to finish second in the off-the-turf Avowal over seven furlongs last time out.

Stormy Lord, a 2-year-old gelding, is eyeing the $250,000 Coronation Futurity, a 1 1/8-mile race for Canadian-bred 2-year-olds on Nov. 8.

Ill have to try him once and see if hell rate a little better on the Polytrack, Black said.

Stormy Lord is coming off a second-place finish in the Cup and Saucer, a 1 1/16-mile turf race in which he led the way to the final furlong but was unable to hold off Hollinger, who is Coronation-bound for trainer Roger Attfield.

Attfield: 11 stakes with 11 horses

With 11 stakes winners at the meeting, Attfield finds himself in a tie atop that category with trainer Malcolm Pierce.

Making Attfields accomplishment unique is that his stakes wins have come with 11 different horses, Simmard being the latest to join the list with his success in Sundays $105,950 Chief Bearhart.

Simmard, a Kentucky-bred 4-year-old, was making just his 11th career start in the Chief Bearhart, an overnight stakes that was run over 1 1/4 miles of yielding turf.

He kept falling apart on me physically, and I had to keep stopping on him, Attfield said. This year, when he came in from Ocala, he was a huge, strong horse. But then he must have got cast in his stall.

Shin problems resulting from that accident postponed Simmards seasonal bow for three months but when he returned from a 10-month layoff here Sept. 6, the colt cleared his second allowance condition in convincing fashion over one mile of grass.

On Sunday, Simmard followed up by becoming a stakes winner with a one-length winner under Landry in the Chief Bearhart.

With no turf opportunities remaining at the meeting, Attfield will be looking for a race in Florida when Simmard heads south as part of his Payson Park string this fall.

Hes a big, strong, sound horse, Attfield said. Hopefully, if he stays that way, he could be any kind of horse.

Bodua scores in Fanfreluche

Trainer Mike Doyle sent out his second stakes winner of the meeting when Bodua, owned by Thor Eaton, registered a front-running upset under Eurico Rosa da Silva in Sundays $150,800 Fanfreluche.

Bodua, purchased at the Keeneland September sale for $35,000, had won her debut at seven furlongs in $50,000 maiden claiming company and was doubling up in the six-furlong Fanfreluche for Ontario-foaled 2-year-old fillies.

I liked her a lot, said Doyle, after watching Bodua upset odds-on favorite Jenny Be Great in the Fanfreluche. Id wanted to get a race into her before this or for the Princess Elizabeth.

Shell go long. But this seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

The $250,000 Princess Elizabeth, a 1 1/16-mile race for Canadian-bred 2-year-old fillies, will be run Saturday, and Bodua will now await another stakes opportunity.

The remaining stakes for her division here are the $150,000 Glorious Song, an open seven-furlong race on Nov. 15, and the Ontario Lassie, a 1 1/16-mile race for Ontario foals on Nov. 29.

Bodua could run in one or both of those races and then will be a member of the Doyle contingent based at Palm Meadows this winter.

Shell have a little rest, said Doyle. Im going to take a few down there and run a couple at Gulfstream.

Sans Sousi tops Wednesday feature

Sans Sousi, who won the seven-furlong Lady Angela for Doyle and Eaton here this spring, looms as the favorite for Wednesday nights second-level allowance-level allowance feature for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.

I think shell like five furlongs, Doyle said. Shell make one run, and theres some speed inside her.

Sans Sousi finished second in last years Fanfreluche, a race that Doyle and Eaton won with Illeria 20 years ago.

Lady Railriders repeat victory in Saturdays $50,600 Pacific Heights Stakes could complicate trainer Steve Spechts life. The wire-to-wire victory in the 1 1/16-mile race was her first on turf and gives Specht more options as he plans her schedule for later this year and early next year.

The Pacific Heights was the second start on the grass for the 4-year-old Lady Railrider. She ran second to stablemate Shes a Lucky Wager – who was the runner-up in the Pacific Heights – in her turf debut at age 2.

Last years Pacific Heights was run on the Tapeta main track.

Even though I thought shed handle turf, there was some doubt in my mind, Specht said.

One of the options will come in the Sunshine Millions in January, when Specht can now look at the filly and mare races on both turf and the main track.

Lady Railrider was second to Leahs Secret in the Sunshine Millions Distaff on the Pro-Ride at Santa Anita last January. Next years Distaff will be held on dirt at Gulfstream in Florida, while the turf race will be run at Santa Anita.

This win gives you options to see which of those races would be tougher, Specht said.

With no suitable races at Golden Gate for Lady Railrider, Specht said he would look for a stakes race at Hollywood Parks fall meet to give her a race before Sunshine Millions.

Specht was confident going into the Pacific Heights. Lady Railrider had just won the California Cup Matron on Oct. 3 following a five-month break.

It was a little quick coming back, but I vanned her back the next day after the Matron, and she didnt miss an oat, he said. It was her only shot to run anywhere for a while. The only other spot was a $200,000 race on the Breeders Cup undercard, and it was on the turf. If we were going to try the turf, I thought this would be a little softer company.

I thought she handled the turf fine as a 2-year-old, and shes gotten much better since.

Lady Railriders victory was the 999th of Spechts career. Victory No. 998 had come one race earlier with Antares World, a nine-length maiden winner for Larry and Marianne Williams, who also own and bred Lady Railrider.

Mawing returns to the saddle

Jockey Leslie Mawing, who had not ridden since suffering a broken leg April 1, returned to action when the Golden Gate Fields meet opened last Wednesday. He got his first win Thursday aboard Judges Verdict in a one-mile maiden race on the turf. He also had a win Sunday.

It felt really great to be back riding after 6 1/2 months, said the 35-year-old Mawing, who suffered compound fractures of both the tibia and fibula in his left leg when Pasta Time ducked through the inner rail while leading a turf race. When I won on the turf, it boosted my confidence even more. I really enjoy riding on the turf.

Mawing was cleared to ride in mid-September and exercised some horses at Emerald Downs, primarily for trainer Frank Lucarelli. At first, he jogged or galloped horses and confessed, The first three days were the toughest.

Mawing has a rod and two screws in his tibia. Though he is pleased with his conditioning, he still is not 100 percent and finds his leg a little stiff when he first wakes up.

When you work horses or ride, you use muscles you forgot you had, he said.

Track to hold handicapping contests

A weekly handicapping contest will be conducted Saturdays at Golden Gate.

Each player must bet $20 in real money, with another $5 going into the prize pool. Golden Gate will put in another $5 for each entry. Players can enter as many times as they like. Sign-up is at the clubhouse service booth.

Any type of single-race wagers, including exotics, can be made at self-service terminals. No multiple-race wagers are allowed. Patrons keep all their winnings and are eliminated from the contest only if their bankroll drops to zero.

The top four finishers, based on bankroll, receive prizes with the winner getting 50 percent of the prize pool, 25 percent to second, 15 percent to third, and 10 percent to fourth.

In addition to the handicapping contest, Saturday will feature the Ghostly Gate Fields promotion with a haunted house, pumpkin patch, bounce houses, pony rides, face painting, and petting zoo from noon to 4 p.m. All activities are free, and children are admitted free to the track.

Golden Gate Fields was honored by Alameda County with the 2009 Stop Waste Partnership Business Efficiency Award in environmental performance. The track was recognized for pollution prevention and resource conservation for creating a systematic recycling program for patron-generated wastes, inaugurating a shuttle service from BART trains to the track, and using straw bedding and landscaping waste in composting operations.