ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The road to the Queen’s Plate continues to heat up here at Woodbine on Saturday with the running of the Queenston, a seven-furlong stakes for Ontario-foaled 3-year-olds.
And, to mark the occasion, Woodbine stakes manager Julie Bell on Thursday released the list of nominees for this year’s Canadian Triple Crown series, with 73 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds remaining eligible as of May 1 via a $500 payment.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The talented River Seven makes his belated season debut Saturday at Woodbine in the $150,000 Queenston, a seven-furlong stakes that serves as a stepping-stone to the $1 million Queen’s Plate.
River Seven faced the best of his division at 2 last year. He was a distant third behind eventual champion 2-year-old and Canadian Horse of the Year Uncaptured while debuting in the June 30 Clarendon Stakes. A month later, he rallied for second behind Uncaptured in the six-furlong Vandal Stakes.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Let Em Shine used raw speed to roll to two easy wins in six-furlong sprints at Santa Anita earlier this year.
If he can conserve just a little of that energy when he makes his stakes debut in Saturday’s $70,000 Came Home Stakes over seven furlongs at Betfair Hollywood Park, Let Em Shine could be headed to New York this summer.
Owner William Peeples and trainer Adam Kitchingman are considering Let Em Shine for the Grade 1, $500,000 King’s Bishop Stakes over seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 24, but need to see a positive race Saturday.
After I’ll Have Another won the Kentucky Derby last year, he was sent from Churchill Downs to Pimlico less than 48 hours later to prepare for the Preakness Stakes, a race he also won.
Doug O’Neill, who trained I’ll Have Another, is following the same pattern this year with Goldencents, with one major difference – he’s heading into the Preakness attempting to stop a Triple Crown bid, not keep one alive.
Gary Stevens came of age as a professional jockey about as far away from Baltimore as you can get and still be standing somewhere on dry land in the Lower Forty-Eight. Even so, as a young rider in such Northwestern outposts as Seattle, Yakima, and Coeur d’Alene he indulged himself more than once in the fantasy of being on a contender in the Preakness Stakes.
Alpha, co-winner of the Travers Stakes last summer, has returned to Saratoga, where on Sunday he worked three furlongs in 37.29 seconds over the Oklahoma training track.
It was his first work since Alpha returned to the U.S. after two starts at Meydan in Dubai. He finished fifth, beaten four lengths in the Godolphin Mile on March 30.
Kiaran McLaughlin, the trainer of Alpha, said he has no definitive race picked out for Alpha’s next start but mentioned the possibility of trying him on the turf.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Coming off an adventurous entry-level allowance victory at Aqueduct four weeks ago, Incognito makes his stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park with an eye toward the Belmont Stakes.
A field of 11 was entered Wednesday for the Peter Pan, nine of whom are Triple Crown-nominated. The Peter Pan, run at 1 1/8 miles, is the local prep for the Belmont, scheduled for June 8.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Power Broker will trade Grade 1 stakes company for older foes when the 3-year-old colt returns to action Friday on the first twilight program of the Churchill Downs spring meet.
As one of the leading 2-year-olds of 2012, Power Broker is sure to be a heavy favorite in the 10th of 11 Friday races, which is scheduled for 7:24 p.m. Eastern. As a maiden, the colt was good enough to win the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes (formerly the Norfolk) at Santa Anita, making him the 2-1 second choice in his next race, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
An eighth-place finish by Treasury Bill in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 16 ended any chance of the colt running in the Triple Crown races. It also was not a true measure of Treasury Bill’s ability, trainer Ron Ellis insists.
“He didn’t handle the track,” Ellis said. “He didn’t handle the flight. I’m going to throw it out. Things didn’t go right for him.”
Calvin Borel may or may not have had a chance to get a feel for the wet racetrack before riding Revolutionary to a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. After all, Borel had just one other mount on the Derby Day card, and that was aboard a maiden named Indy Awesome, who was away slowly before finishing a no-factor sixth in the fourth race.
For whatever reason, Borel – the three-time Derby winner who last month was voted into the Hall of Fame – has had a difficult time securing mounts at this meet.
