Unique Bella upsets Champagne Room to win Las Virgenes (Sports Betting News)

Trainer Carl Nafzger likes the idea of a short ride to a big payday. Street Sense, the Kentucky Derby and Travers winner trained by Nafzger, is the odds-on favorite in a short field for Saturday’s $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park, an easy drive up Interstate 71 from his home barn at Churchill Downs.

Proudinsky beat Optimer by 1 1/2 lengths Friday in the $52,000 feature race at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting. Ridden by Victor Espinoza and racing for the first time in a year, Proudinsky ran a mile on the turf in 1:34.39 and paid $6.40, $4.60 and $3.20. Optimer returned $6.60 and $3.80, and Artist’s Tale paid $3.80 to show.

English Channel squeezed through an opening along the rail and went to win the $600,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Sunday for the second straight year. The 2-length victory over Stream of Gold earned English Channel an automatic berth in the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at New Jersey’s Monmouth Park on Oct.