ALTOONA, Iowa – With the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks and Grade 3 Iowa Derby looming on June 29, 3-year-olds come to the fore at Prairie Meadows for Saturday’s $60,000 Prairie Mile for both sexes and $60,000 Panthers Stakes for females.
The Prairie Mile drew a field of eight headed by Black Bear, who makes his stakes debut after dominating at Oaklawn Park in his only two starts, and King Henny, who will be contesting his eighth straight stakes race.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Sean Smullen does most of his training at Frank Stronach’s nearby Adena Springs Farm, where he oversees a constant stream of horses coming in from the racetrack and then shipping back to their various trainers here at Woodbine.
But Smullen also maintains an ontrack operation, which is overseen on a daily basis by his assistant Patrick Dixon, and while his charges often are not at the top of the stable’s hierarchy, he also has been known to have a runner in his stable.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – For years, the $60,000 John J. Reilly Handicap for New Jersey-breds was a reunion for popular Monmouth Park veterans like Joey P. and Who’s the Cowboy.
Most of the old favorites have faded from the scene, giving way to the next generation of statebred handicap runners for Saturday’s renewal.
Hop Skip and Away is the link to the race’s recent past. An 8-year-old gelding trained and co-owned by Joe Pierce Jr., he hit the board in the last three Reillys. He was second last year following third-place finishes in 2010 and 2011.
Rick Mettee sent out his first two starters as the trainer for Team Valor International this week, picking up a pair of second-place finishes, one in a maiden claiming race at Parx and the other moved up by disqualification in the Little Silver Stakes at Monmouth Park.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Aristides Stakes drew five fair-to-middling sprinters for its 25th running Saturday at Churchill Downs. It is carded as the fifth of 11 races.
Meanwhile, the Opening Verse – once a six-figure race at Churchill before being relegated to overnight-stakes status – got an excellent field of seven, including such graded turf winners as Turallure, Silver Max, and Keep Up. It goes as race 10.
Guess which has a bigger purse and is the Saturday “feature.”
The last three winners of the race – Kyma, Ben’s Cat, and Chamberlain Bridge – head a lineup of 11 talented turf sprinters in the 41st running of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup Handicap, Penn National’s oldest stakes.
The $150,000 Governor’s Cup, scheduled for five furlongs on grass, goes Saturday as race 2 on a 10-race card that features seven stakes, including the inaugural running of the $500,000 Penn Mile for 3-year-olds.
Unusual Heat, a son of Nureyev, has been California’s leading turf sire for the past nine years, so when you purchase a filly sired by Unusual Heat, the possibility of running her on turf is in the back of your mind, trainer Jeff Bonde said.
Running her on turf for a $100,000 purse against California-breds pushed the thought to the front of Bonde’s mind, and on Saturday he will try Unusual Way on a new surface in the Campanile, a one-mile race for statebred 3-year-old fillies.
Lattin Devil, impressive winner of the Inaugural Stakes against open company on opening night at Evangeline Downs in mid-April, looks to make it 2 for 2 in stakes this meeting when he takes on four Louisiana-bred 3-year-olds in Saturday night’s $50,000 Ragin Cajun. The seven-furlong feature makes an early appearance on the 11-race program as the second half of the early daily double.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Incognito, the fifth-place finisher in the Peter Pan Stakes on May 11, has been confirmed as a starter for the Belmont, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Thursday. He will be transferred from Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable to his Godolphin Racing operation and will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr.
Call Me Lou and Clear the Runway look like the main players in a second-level allowance race with a $25,000 claiming option that headlines the eight-race card at Northlands Park on Saturday. The six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up drew seven horses and will go as the seventh race.
Call Me Lou is moving up in class after scoring an impressive win over Spanish Jazz in a first-level allowance race May 10, and the 75 Beyer Speed Figure he earned for his four-length romp going six furlongs is easily the best last-race figure in the field.
