Royal Delta rallies to win Ladies’ Classic

Horse racing: Royal Delta won the $2 million Ladies’ Classic by 2 1/2 lengths under the lights Friday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., capping an opening day of the Breeders’ Cup that included three upsets.

Royal Delta rallied in the final furlong to give Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott his second straight win and fourth overall in the Ladies’ Classic. The 3-year-old filly was the slight 2-1 favorite over Plum Pretty.

John Velazquez rode two of the three upsets on the six-race Breeders’ Cup card. European-based horses were shut out, while Canada and Saudi Arabia had a win apiece in front of 40,677 on a sunny but chilly day.

In the Ladies’ Classic, Royal Delta ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.78 under Jose Lezcano and paid $6.40 to win.

Mott wasn’t the only Hall of Fame trainer to win. Bob Baffert opened the day with a victory by 2-5 favorite Secret Circle in the $500,000 Juvenile Sprint, new this year.

Jacobson moves into lead at Shanghai

Golf: Fredrik Jacobson’s 6-under-par 66 was barely enough to take the lead in the World Golf Championships HSBC Champions at Shanghai.

The Swede was at 11-under 133, tying the 36-hole tournament record, and was one shot ahead of Louis Oosthuizen and Adam Scott.

• Couples, Allen, Frost share Champions Tour lead: Michael Allen shot a 2-under 69 for a share of the second-round lead with Fred Couples and David Frost in the Champions Tour’s season-ending Charles Schwab Championship.

Couples, tied for the first-round lead with Jay Haas after a 68, rallied for a 70 after a double bogey on the opening hole. Frost had a 69 to match Couples and Allen at 4 under at TPC Harding Park.

• Ex-caddie uses slur to slam Woods: Tiger Woods’ former caddie caused another sensation, this time by using a racial slur to disparage his old boss during a caddies award roast in Shanghai.

Steve Williams received a mock award Friday night for “Celebration of the Year” for his TV interview after Adam Scott won the Bridgestone Invitational. That was the day Williams said it was “the best win of his life,” despite being on the bag with Woods for 13 majors.

At an awards party filled with banter, Williams said of his interview, “It was my aim to shove it right up that black a———.”

The provision of the party is that all comments are off the record.

Approached early the next morning at breakfast, Williams was stunned to learn that British tabloids had gone with the story.

“Why would they do that?” he said. “The whole thing was meant to be fun.”

Roush drivers dominate qualifying

Auto racing: Sprint Cup points leader Carl Edwards qualified seventh for Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and will start just behind Tony Stewart.

Stewart qualified fifth, in the row ahead of Edwards, whose Roush Fenway Racing teammates claimed the top three spots.

Greg Biffle took the pole with a lap of 193.736 mph. Biffle was the last to run a qualifying lap and just beat out David Ragan (193.729 mph). Matt Kenseth will start his Ford on row two next to Paul Menard’s Chevrolet.

• Harvick wins at Texas after Hornaday knocked out: Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR Truck Series race at Texas Speedway after Ron Hornaday Jr. was knocked out of the race by a retaliating Kyle Busch.

Harvick wrapped up the season owner’s title for his No. 2 truck, finishing ahead of series points leader and polesitter Austin Dillon, who takes a 20-point lead over Johnny Sauter into the final race in two weeks.

Hornaday was knocked out of the race on the 15th of 148 laps when Busch retaliated for contact between them by pushing the four-time champion into the wall.

Hawks will not be sold to Meruelo

Miscellany: The Atlanta Hawks will not be sold to California developer and pizza chain owner Alex Meruelo.

Just last week, there were reports the NBA was delaying approval of sale because of concerns about Meruelo’s finances, though he insisted he had enough money to purchase the team and run it in a first-class manner.

• Big East files countersuit against West Virginia: The Big East filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against West Virginia on Friday, four days after the university sued the conference in a bid to make a quick exit for the Big 12.

The conference said the lawsuit was filed in Rhode Island Superior Court seeking unspecified damages along with an order requiring West Virginia to stay put for 27 months.

• Toney outpointed by Lebedev: James Toney, a former champion fighting at 43, lost a unanimous decision to Denis Lebedev of Russia for the interim WBA cruiserweight title in Moscow.

• Morse helps MLB stars beat Taiwan: Washington Nationals first baseman Michael Morse hit a towering home run over the center-field wall to lead the MLB All-Star team to a 6-2 win over the Taiwan national team at Taipei, Taiwan. The MLB All-Stars lead 3-0 in the five-game series.