Accelerate, Dr. Dorr expected for Gold Cup

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on May 26 is not expected to have a large field, but will include two runners who have won major stakes for older horses in recent months in Accelerate and Dr. Dorr.

Accelerate won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on March 10 and was second in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 14. Dr. Dorr is unbeaten in three starts this year, the most recent of which was an impressive win by 7 1/4 lengths in the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on April 28.

The $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita is run at 1 1/4 miles and is the richest race of the track’s spring-summer meeting. Other candidates are Prince of Arabia and Full of Luck, who were second and fourth in the Californian, and Mubtaahij, who finished third by six lengths in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 31.

City of Light, who won the Oaklawn Handicap, and The Lieutenant, who was third in the Californian, are nominated for the Gold Cup at Santa Anita, but are being considered for the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Belmont Park on June 9 and the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 16, trainer Michael McCarthy said on Friday.

The Gold Cup at Santa Anita is one of three Grade 1 races at Santa Anita on Memorial Day weekend.

The $300,000 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf on May 26 will be the 2018 graded stakes debut for Uni, who is based in New York with trainer Chad Brown. Uni won the Grade 2 Sands Point Stakes at Belmont Park last September and the minor Plenty of Grace Stakes at Aqueduct in April in her only start this year.

The local fillies and mares expected to start are the stakes winners Beau Recall, Madam Dancealot, and Midnight Crossing.

Enola Gray, who won the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes last July but was fourth behind Beau Recall in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes on April 7, could run in the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes on the hillside turf course on May 28 or the $100,000 Wilshire Stakes at a mile on turf on June 24.

The $400,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf on May 28 will have a strong field, with Blackjackcat, Bowies Hero, Colonist, Heart to Heart, Hunt, Next Shares, Om, and Pavel among the projected runners.

Pavel is also nominated for the Gold Cup at Santa Anita. A decision on which race will be targeted has yet to be made, trainer Doug O’Neill said on Friday.

The Shoemaker Mile is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth for the winner to the BC Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.