A Strong Outing for Azeri

There is one 2002 Breeders’ Cup winner you can put a circle around right now.

Provided Azeri stays healthy, she will be close to impossible to beat in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Oct. 26 at Arlington Park.

The 3-10 favorite in the $250,000 Vanity Handicap on Saturday at Hollywood Park, Azeri had no trouble handling 125 pounds, the highest impost of her eight-race career, and her four rivals.

After making the lead without encouragement from jockey Mike Smith, the 4-year-old Jade Hunter filly cruised to her fourth consecutive Grade I victory and her seventh win overall.

At the wire, she had three lengths on 7-2 second choice Affluent, who has been second to her in three consecutive races. Azeri completed the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 4/5.

The filly is expected to have two more starts before the Breeders’ Cup.

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Jockey Eddie Delahoussaye was not seriously hurt, but he took off his final two mounts after being involved in a spill in the sixth race.

Delahoussaye was riding Jorrocks when the 8-year-old gelding apparently suffered a fatal heart attack in the stretch.

A necropsy will be performed on Jorrocks, who had won 11 of 56 and earned $221,741, to determine the exact cause of death.

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Malhub, a 16-1 longshot, won the $395,037 Golden Jubilee Stakes, a Group I, at Royal Ascot in England. Johannesburg, in his first start since the Kentucky Derby, was ninth.... Raging Fever, the 2-1 favorite, won the $300,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap, a Grade I, at Belmont Park.