Though it is only a Grade 3 stakes, Thursday's $250,000 Fall Highweight Handicap could have Eclipse Award ramifications for La Verdad if she is able to defeat males in the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature at Aqueduct.
A full field is expected for the Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch Stakes for older females at one mile on turf, which is the biggest of two stakes Sunday, closing day.
If there is safety in numbers, trainer Chad Brown is trying to make himself awfully safe in the Hollywood Derby.
Dale Romans can’t remember a Thanksgiving without the racetrack. Even as a young boy growing up in Louisville, he would come to Churchill Downs from his nearby home with his father, trainer Jerry Romans.
Page McKenney is the horse to beat when a competitive field of eight meet in the $100,000 Swatara Stakes at Penn National on Wednesday night. The Swatara is one of two stakes on the Fabulous Strike undercard.
International Star was forced to miss the big dance this spring, but he's back on the floor Wednesday for the $200,000 Zia Park Derby. International Star swept the 3-year-old series at Fair Grounds and is making his first start since he became a millionaire in the Louisiana Derby in March.
Dortmund and Effinex were among the standouts expected in the entry box Tuesday at Churchill Downs, whose 21-day fall meet will hit its apex Friday with the 142nd running of the Grade 1 Clark Handicap.
Hark back to 2011, when Gantry, recently purchased from East Coast connections, won the Thanksgiving Handicap for new owner Brittlyn Stable and new trainer Ron Faucheux. Gantry thrived away from stronger sprint competition back East and won the Thanksgiving again in 2013 while for years hitting hard in Louisiana sprint stakes. In Clearly Now, Brittlyn and Faucheux have a horse they hope slots in similarly, if not better than Gantry in regional stakes. For three calendar years, the 5-year-old Clearly Now has knocked heads with some of the best sprinters in North America. He'll be favored to win the $60,000 Thanksgiving Handicap on Thursday at Fair Grounds in his first start for Faucheux, and win it he will if he comes anywhere near his best form.
Though jockey Mike Luzzi pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal mischief, three other charges levied against him from a domestic dispute involving his wife during the summer at Saratoga were dropped, according to Donald Matusik, Luzzi's attorney.
On Thanksgiving Eve, Ben's Cat will shoot for his fourth straight victory in the $200,000 Fabulous Strike Handicap – but it isn't going to be easy.
