The pick six Wednesday at Santa Anita is filled with ambiguity – unreliable droppers, murky pace scenarios, and undefined distance preferences. Fortunately for bettors chasing the $80,136 carryover, there is one obvious certainty. In the $75,000 Kalookan Queen Stakes, speedster Sunday Rules is the one to catch.
Horses to watch from Monticello Raceway.
Jan's Reserve, dominant winner of the King's Swan Stakes over Aqueduct's main track Nov. 27, topped a field of seven entered Sunday for Friday's inaugural running of the $125,000 Lost in the Fog Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters over the inner track.
As we look forward to 2016 there is much to be learned from this passing harness racing campaign and hopefully much to look forward to.
As consistent as he's been for most of his career, Empire Dreams never has won consecutive races. So coming off a win in the Empire Classic in October, perhaps his half-length loss as the 3-2 favorite in a division of the New York Stallion Stakes on Nov. 29 should have been expected. On Thursday, Empire Dreams could very well return to the winner's circle when he closes out 2015 in the $100,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct.
American Pharoah's sweep of the three Triple Crown races this year was voted the Sports Story of the Year by the Associated Press, the organization announced on Dec. 24.
Few would have raised an eyebrow had Send It In and Uncle Sigh showed up in the entries for Thursday's $100,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes at Aqueduct. Instead, the connections of both horses opted for the more conservative route and those two are the main protagonists in Wednesday's allowance feature.
Sales of 2-year-olds in training long ago shed their initial reputation as strictly a source of precocious, short-running juveniles with no future as classic horses, but given the nature of the beast, speed is still what is always going to sell best when buyers gather to watch immature horses go as fast as they can at juvenile breeze shows. The contrasting results one can get from that exercise – even when highly successful – are evident in the sire and grandsire of recent Grade 3 Mr. Prospector winner X Y Jet.
Like a rising tide lifting all boats, all aspects of the Thoroughbred industry have been touched by its long-awaited Triple Crown winner. American Pharoah’s timing was opportune, as he burst onto the scene in a recovering industry that has seen larger foal crops and improved auction figures indicative of optimism – along with rising stud fees, on which the Triple Crown winner had a direct impact.
Jockey Pedro Flores suffered a crack in his first thoracic vertebra (T1) when his mount, On Time Cat, broke down and fell on the far turn in Sunday’s third race at Golden Gate Fields.
