The $50,000-added Tri-State Futurity at Charles Town on Saturday night is open to 2-year-olds bred in Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. The 10 runners that will meet Saturday night, however, all hail from West Virginia.
Divine Oath and St. Albans Boy were both compromised by a slow early pace in the Grade 3 Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland last time out. They will meet again Saturday in the $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup at Laurel Park.
A couple of one-mile $75,000 turf stakes for 3-year-olds – the Showing Up and Cellars Shiraz – share the spotlight at Gulfstream Park West Saturday.
Three last-out stakes winners, including defending race winner Mister Pollard, look like prime players in an intriguing 12-horse field for the $150,000 To Much Coffee, the last of four stakes for Indiana-breds on Saturday’s closing-day card at Indiana Grand.
There could be a lot on the line in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Maple Leaf for Academic, who’s a shoo-in to become this year’s Canadian champion 3-year-old filly. A victory in the 1 1/4-mile stakes would boost her chances for Horse of the Year honors, as long as a Woodbine runner does not win a Breeders’ Cup event at Keeneland.
If a little luck had gone Sheikh of Sheikhs’s way, trainer Wesley Ward would be getting his wish to try the colt on turf for the first time in Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. But with the field oversubscribed, the also-eligible colt is instead more likely to run on Saturday in the Juvenile Dirt Sprint at Keeneland.
Rivers Run Deep and Candy Bites, the top two finishers in the Best of Ohio Sprint three weeks ago, meet again at the same six-furlong distance in Saturday’s $75,000 Cardinal Handicap for Ohio-breds at Mahoning Valley Race Course.
The $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Keeneland suffered a major blow Thursday when Beholder, the race’s second choice, was withdrawn from the race after bleeding during her gallop that morning, trainer Richard Mandella said.
Every elite athlete should do this poorly on their way down. Folks can say what they want about Edgar Prado in the twilight of his career, but the fact is the 48-year-old jockey can still ride with the best.
