ELMONT, N.Y. - The Belmont Park undercard leading up to Saturday’s Belmont Stakes figures to be just as compelling and entertaining as the main event itself and offers eight graded stakes, five of them Grade 1’s, topped by the $1 million Metropolitan Mile.
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Mon, 06/05/2023 - 15:58
ELMONT, N.Y. - Raise Cain, the eighth-place finisher from the Kentucky Derby, has been rerouted from Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes to Sunday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Matt Winn Stakes at Ellis Park, trainer Ben Colebrook said Monday afternoon.
The Matt Winn was originally scheduled to be run at 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs. With the decision to stop racing at Churchill due to the spate of equine fatalities this spring and move racing scheduled for Churchill to Ellis Park, the Matt Winn will now be run at 1 1/8 miles.
While Churchill Downs begins conducting the remainder of its spring-summer meet at Ellis Park this Saturday, turf racing at Ellis will not begin until June 15, according to a notice sent to horsemen. Thus, the $225,000 Mighty Beau Stakes for older turf sprinters, which was to have been run Saturday, has been moved to June 18. It will be run at 5 1/2 furlongs, a slight change from the original five furlongs, to accommodate the different course. Nominations were re-opened for the race, which originally closed May 27.
Gun Runner hinted at talent as a 2-year-old, was a Grade 2 winner and third in the Kentucky Derby early in his 3-year-old campaign, and became a Grade 1 winner toward the end of that season. But as an older horse, he was nearly untouchable, ending his career on a streak of five Grade 1 wins and voted the 2017 Horse of the Year for co-owners Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys and trainer Steve Asmussen.
Trainer Kenny McPeek looked loaded for bear with his 2-year-olds at the end of 2021. Rattle N Roll won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, and Smile Happy took both his starts at Churchill Downs, including the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, stoking additional hopes of success back under the twin spires the following spring. But neither colt made an impact on the 2022 Triple Crown trail.
ARCADIA, Calif. - At the beginning of her career last November, Window Shopping finished a troubled sixth in a one-mile maiden race on turf at Del Mar.
That was the last time Window Shopping has started on the surface. In her first three starts this year, Window Shopping ran on dirt, including a win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Summertime Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita.
This summer, Window Shopping is scheduled to return to the Del Mar turf course for the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, a $300,000 race at 1 1/8 miles.
Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous worked a half-mile in 48.19 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont Park main track in preparation for next Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Acorn Stakes.
Pretty Mischievous started about a length in front of stablemate Gilmore and the two basically finished as they started, though Pretty Mischievous pulled away on the gallop out.
Be Your Best, who won the P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga last summer, returns to New York and is the only stakes winner among eight 3-year-old fillies entered in Thursday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Wonder Again Stakes.
After winning the P.G. Johnson, Be Your Best finished third in the Miss Grillo at Aqueduct and finished her 2-year-old campaign with a ninth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
She made her 3-year-old debut in the Grade 2 Appalachian at Keeneland, where she finished seventh. Trainer Horacio De Paz indicated she likely needed that race.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The three-time stakes winner Red Carpet Ready was supplemented by her connections to Thursday’s $150,000 Jersey Girl Stakes at Belmont Park, but the filly who would likely be favored in the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies is not definite to run.
The uncertainty of what’s happening in Kentucky led trainer Rusty Arnold and his owners, Bo Bromagen’s Ashbrook Farm, and Patrick Lewis’ Upland Flats Racing, to pay a $750 supplemental fee to make Red Carpet Ready eligible for the Jersey Girl.