Flavier's can-do spirit, combined with his winning, populist ways, led President Fidel Ramos to choose him to head the ruling coalition's senatorial slate.

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But Geraghty clinched the Daily Telegraph Leading Rider award when he recorded his fifth victory, winning the final race of the meeting on Spirit Leader.

BBC: SPORT | Other Sport | Horse Racing | Thursday at Cheltenham

The film's producers said they had expected fellow Oscar best-picture nominee "Beasts of the Southern Wild" to win the top Spirit Award and that they have no expectations of winning the big prize at the Oscars, where Ben Affleck's CIA thriller "Argo" is the best-picture favorite.

NPR: 'Silver Linings' Leads Spirit Awards With 4 Prizes

When we won again, some people got very angry, and the tournament directors basically said that it was not really in the spirit of the tournament to have these weird computer-designed fleets winning.

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Guitarist Dustin Boyer avoided quoting Lowell George's slide parts on the original, and drummer Alex Thomas propelled a winning "The Endless Plain of Fortune, " for which the orchestra played with a warm spirit befitting the Cale arrangement, adding bold strokes that jarred the cozy Brian Wilson-like misty serenity in the source material.

WSJ: John Cale | Collision Course | By Jim Fusilli