The $50,000 Stickney and Cicero handicaps – the Stickney for fillies and mares, and the Cicero for 3-year-olds and up – look at first glance like Illinois-bred turf-route stakes. But the final part of the race conditions opens the races to horses bred outside Illinois.
The 2-year-olds Foundation and Deauville might be stuck racing against each other for a while.
Just like the weather, things are beginning to heat up during training hours at Keeneland with the 2015 Breeders’ Cup now just a week away.
Conquest Curlinate, a multiple graded-placed runner, will make his debut at stud in 2016 at Shannondoe Farm in St. Thomas, Ontario for an advertised fee of $5,000 Canadian.
The New York Racing Association has expanded on the concept of a single card devoted to New York-breds by adding one in the spring at Belmont Park and one during the summer at Saratoga. But the original showcase for statebred runners is in the fall, and Saturday’s card is by far the strongest of the three restricted cards run throughout the year on this circuit.
Trainer Al Stall Jr. is not one to run a horse out of line so when he steps the maiden Forevamo up into stakes company for Saturday night’s $200,000 Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs, it’s cause for a handicapper to pause.
Om on the lead proved unbeatable in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6. Nearly seven weeks later, the same scenario could take place in Saturday’s $200,000 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita.
Let’s take a snapshot of the Breeders’ Cup pre-entry class of 2015:
I like Gap Year, who made an excellent transition to turf over the summer at Saratoga, in Saturday’s Valley View Stakes at Keeneland.
Trainer Tim Rycroft is hoping to close out the Northlands Park meet by winning the $50,000 Freedom of the City on Friday evening and the $50,000 Canadian Juvenile on closing day Saturday.
