There are some exceptionally fast 2-year-old fillies around the country, but none of them is running in the Starlet at Los Alamitos on Saturday. The winning Beyer Figure in this race is likely to be about an 80, not exactly Grade 1 caliber.
Trainer Larry Rivelli and owners V-Leaf Stables and Richard Ravin won the 2014 Jim Edgar Illinois Futurity with Dom the Bomb, and those same connections have Dom the Bomb's half-brother Richie the Bull as the horse to beat in Saturday's renewal of the Edgar.
An 8 1/2-month layoff for War Correspondent is just one of many intriguing variables that horseplayers will need to address prior to the $100,000 El Prado Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
The quality of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31 will get a stern test in the Far East on Sunday when the first- and third-place finishers, Mongolian Saturday and Green Mask, start in the $2.38 million Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin Racecourse.
With 2-year-olds being less experienced and less battle-tested than older horses, races for these young horses understandably are filled with more unknown variables.
Here we go again, another flare-up of California's ongoing struggle with PHSD (post-Hollywood stress disorder), with symptoms not unlike those experienced by an abandoned child. Note to industry: Daddy's not coming home.
Just five horses contested the 2014 Louisiana Champions Day Classic, and the eight-runner 2013 Classic lacked depth, but this year's edition of the richest race on Louisiana Champions Day lured nine entrants with high-quality horses at the top. Mobile Bay won the Super Derby and the Zia Park Derby this year, and fellow 3-year-old The Pickett Factor might match him for raw talent. Yet it's 5-year-old One King's Man with all the upside coming into the $150,000 Classic.
Grade 1 winner Einstein will relocate to Magali Farms in Santa Ynez, Calif. for the 2016 breeding season.
Valid will cap off another outstanding campaign when he's among the favorites in Saturday's extremely competitive Harlan's Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The 1 1/16-mile dirt race drew a graded stakes-caliber field that also includes likely favorite Madefromlucky, Sr. Quisqueyano, Encryption, and Mr. Jordan.
The well-traveled Found Money will start in his sixth consecutive stakes Saturday in the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds at Los Alamitos
