It would be cool if Tones wins race 1 Saturday at Santa Anita. He has been up and down the class ladder. A stakes winner at Santa Anita in 2012, he sank all the way to $8,000 claiming a year ago. After being claimed by Molly Pearson and sent to Arizona, Tones rapidly improved.
Claiming activity has picked up, and $10,000 claiming fillies and mares were for sale in race 1. The dominating winner was Lady Vivien for trainer David Bernstein and jockey Kent Desormeaux. She was claimed in a two-way shake by Ed Freeman and will be a threat on the raise despite the slow 1:40.14 for one mile. She earned a 68 Beyer.
All 10 races, including six stakes, are for New York-breds, beginning with an early pick four that consists of the Kingston (2nd), Bouwerie (3rd), Mount Vernon (4th), and Mike Lee (5th). The Critical Eye (7th) and the Commentator Handicap (9th) are the first and third legs of a late pick four with a $300,000-guaranteed pool.
As has been the case over the past week, the main track played exceptionally fast Friday. Four dirt races were rated slightly more than two full seconds faster than par. Three of the winners led throughout; the lone exception was Ruby’s Rocketman (5th, $7.50), who saved ground to midstretch and eased off the inside to run down pacesetter Indian Rain.
Two stakes, the Aristides and Opening Verse, are on deck for Saturday’s 10-race card at Churchill, which is calling its main track “fast” and turf “firm” after Friday rain. The rain probably aided the turf course, which was looking dry when racing was last conducted on it on Memorial Day.
There are questions to be answered in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup, the second turf stakes of the meet. Is Excaper a much-improved runner following throat surgery? Is River Seven ready off the layoff? Will the table be set for a closer if all the speed hooks up in the seven-furlong test?
Stakes winner Bear’s Gem started slowly before going wide over an inside-favoring track in her disappointing season opener in the Ballade Stakes. She made amends in the featured allowance sprint for Ontario-sired females, scoring after an inside stalking trip under Eurico Rosa Da Silva.
Although the track was fast as the horses entered the paddock for the first race, that condition didn’t even make it past the opener. The skies opened as the horses were on the way to the gate, and the short thunderstorm turned the track sloppy.
DRF Plus graded stakes analysis for the Connaught Cup at Woodbine.
DRF Plus handicapping analysis for Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 31.
