Blue Dancer will try to remain undefeated in Canada when he runs Saturday in the $50,000 Count Lathum Handicap at Northlands Park. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds is the final local prep for the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby, which will be contested over a grueling 1 3/8 miles Aug. 15.
Frivolous has been full of surprises lately. After going 2 for 16 to begin her career, Frivolous has upset a pair of Grade 2 stakes at long odds in her last four starts. On Saturday, she may have the best early speed in the Grade 1, $750,000 Delaware Handicap, the high point of the summer season at Delaware Park.
Jockey Cody Jensen will attempt to make his first mount back from injury a memorable Saturday, when he rides the fastest qualifier, Bodacious Eagle, in the Grade 1, $1,067,000 Rainbow Quarter Horse Derby at Ruidoso Downs. Jensen recently missed five weeks due to a morning training accident that left him with a fractured vertebra and six broken ribs.
Empire Dreams will try to remain in career-best form while Saratoga Snacks will try to regain his best form when the two head a five-horse field in Saturday’s $100,000 Saginaw Stakes at Belmont Park.
Though there are several different scenarios in considering the winner of Delaware Handicap, the Beyer Figures point to Sheer Drama
Jac’s Fact, a two-time stakes winner this season, looks formidable for his return to restricted company Saturday in the $75,000 George Lewis Memorial at ThistleDown.
Tora Yamaguchi toiled in the racing office for 15 years, but he is now operating on the other side of the entry clerk’s desk after recently taking over as the jockey agent for Rafael Bejarano, whose previous agent, Joe Ferrer, retired and returned to Florida.
Midnight Storm will be barreling along on or near the front of Saturday’s $400,000 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar when the field turns for home. His performance through the stretch of the turf race at 1 1/8 miles will play a huge role in his schedule for August.
By most accounts, Saturday’s $213,450 Golden Girls for older pacing mares is as wide-open an event as the Meadowlands has carded all season long. The 1-1/8 mile contest, tabbed as race nine of 14 on the card, includes a dozen mares. One of the mares in the field, Sandbetweenurtoes, was an impressive eight-time winner in 11 starts as a 3-year-old, primarily for trainer Larry Remmen.
Only six pounds separates the entire field of 10 fillies and mares in the Saturday feature at Gulfstream Park, the Bougainvillea Handicap, a weight spread that helps to illustrate the wide-open nature of the five-furlong turf race.
