Elm Drive

Adare Manor (f, 4, Uncle Mo--Brooklynsway, by Giant Gizmo), a big, rangy daughter of her Breeders' Cup-winning sire, made it four in a row and a first Grade I with a facile win in the $400,000 GI Clement L. Hirsch S. at Del Mar Saturday. The filly will likely attempt to win a Breeders' Cup of her own as the "Win and You're In" Hirsch offers a fees-paid berth to the GI Distaff, which will be held at Santa Anita in November. When the field broke in the Hirsch, it...

Making just her second start in the last 16 months, Bob Baffert's Eda (Munnings) looks to keep her winning streak rolling in Tuesday's GII Great Lady M S. Los Alamitos Race Course plays host to the $550,000 OBS March grad who enters having won her last five straight dating back to Oct. 2021 for owner Baoma Corp. Already a Grade I winner over this track with her victory in 2021's GI Starlet S., Eda went to the sidelines off a gate-to-wire score in the GIII Santa Ysabel in her next...

Historically, Independence Day racing had served up a smorgasbord of delectable graded action throughout the U.S. Since the advent of the 'Super Saturday' format instituted in many of the nation's biggest racing jurisdictions in more recent times, however, July 4 racing has felt a little more abstemious than gourmand. Underscoring the point, this year's holiday racing schedule features a single graded stakes race, the GII Great Lady M. at Los Alamitos. Formerly the Sequoia H., the Great Lady M. was initially contested over seven furlongs at Hollywood Park in 1941,...

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...

A wide-open field of 11 juvenile fillies have been entered for Friday evening's GII Sorrento S. at Del Mar. Smash Ticket (Midnight Lute) is the 9-5 morning-line favorite off the heels of a field-best 78 Beyer Speed Figure earned in a five-length maiden score at second asking for trainer Todd Fincher at Del Mar July 17. She impressively dueled clear that day after breaking poorly. The dark bay was previously a debut second in the Lone Star mud June 5. "It was a pretty big ask for her to jump...