Belle Hill, the leading 3-year-old filly at Emerald Downs, is likely to be a prohibitive favorite Saturday when she headlines the $50,000 Kent Handicap at 1 1/16 miles. Only five horses were signed on to challenge Belle Hill, who coasted to an easy victory in the one-mile Irish Day Handicap in her last start.
This year’s Claiming Crown event will be contested on Dec. 5 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., and include nine races instead of eight, the organizers of the event have announced. The new race will be a five-furlong turf race for fillies and mares offering a purse of $110,000.
Twilight Eclipse, who finished a troubled third behind Big Blue Kitten in the July 5 United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park, will bypass the Aug. 1 Bowling Green at Saratoga and point for the Aug. 29 Sword Dancer there.
With a decisive Polytrack-sprint allowance score at Arlington last month, Hogy’s pattern this summer looks more like 2014 than 2013, and he is the 3-1 morning-line favorite to win the Hanshin for the second time. He’ll encounter familiar foes Saturday: Mister Marti Gras and Hammers Terror, second and third behind Hogy in 2013, both are entered in the Grade 3, $100,000 one-turn Polytrack mile.
Big Blue Kitten is undefeated on the turf at Saratoga and his connections hope that statistic remains intact by summer’s end, with the 7-year-old horse likely to make two starts at the upcoming meet.
Todd Pletcher brings a hot hand into the $60,000 Lamplighter Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday. He will send dout Nonna’s Boy and Dontbetwithbruno in the 1 1/16-mile turf race.
After winning the Graduate Series for 4-year-old pacers, Doo Wop Hanover will try to move to the head of the class in Saturday’s $430,600 William R. Haughton Memorial at Meadowlands Racetrack. JL Cruze, who won the Graduate’s trotting edition, is the 3-5 favorite in the $443,300 Hambletonian Maturity for 4-year-old trotters.
The $125,000 Rockville Centre Saturday at Belmont Park is billed as a stakes, but five of the eight New York-bred 2-year-olds in the six-furlong race are maidens.
Salutation, a 2-year-old colt by Medaglia d’Oro, has been given a different preparation for his career debut on Saturday than a majority of the juveniles who will start at the Del Mar meeting.
Elektrum takes a drop in class, and is capable of winning her first stakes, in Saturday’s $80,000 Osunitas Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Del Mar.
