Overshadowed by the sextet of stakes on Saturday’s program at Belmont Park is a $102,000 allowance race at 1 1/16 miles that features the return to the races of Samraat, who won two Grade 3 stakes as 3-year-old of 2014.
The Group 1 Coral-Eclipse Stakes on Saturday at Sandown Park could be viewed as a two-horse race – unless one thinks that is one contender too many. Golden Horn, the smashing Epsom Derby winner who has yet to be beaten, steps quickly out of 3-year-old-restricted competition and tackles older foes just one month after his Derby win, and bettors are not viewing him as vulnerable.
Ivan James will have to defeat the filly First Fancy Prize to take down his second major stakes of the year Saturday night in the Grade 2, $318,120 Firecracker Futurity for Quarter Horses.
There are precious few clues to help handicappers decipher the $75,000 Cleveland Gold Cup, Saturday’s feature for Ohio-bred 3-year-olds at ThistleDown.
The morning line for the $50,000 Purple Violet, the Saturday feature and first stakes of the meet at Arlington, pretty much says it all. Favored at 7-2 is Tizgorgeous, while the longest price among eight entrants is 12-1 on Wildwood Kantharos.
On a busy weekend for top Minnesota-breds, the 3-year-olds come to the fore Saturday for renewals of two six-furlong stakes, the $60,000 Victor S. Myers for colts and geldings and the $60,000 Frances Genter for fillies.
It may not have attracted a top horse from Europe, but Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Belmont Derby does appear to have brought together the best North American-based 3-year-old turf horses in training.
Racing secretary Bob Moreno said on Thursday that he expects a decline for Sunday’s program and into the second and final week of the Los Alamitos meeting from July 9-12.
It’s too early in the history of the Belmont Oaks and Belmont Derby, both of which will be run for just the second time at Belmont Park Saturday, to know whether the races – technically continuations of the Garden City and Jamaica – are white elephants or instant successes. Either way, the purses for these grass races for 3-year-olds still look like typographical errors: $1.25 million for the Belmont Derby, $1 million for the Oaks.
Tonalist will be a heavy favorite when he stretches back out to 1 1/4 miles in the Grade 2, $500,000 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park on Saturday.
