After more than a century in existence, it should come as little surprise the Bashford Manor Stakes has been won by horses who eventually made something of themselves. Black Gold (1923), Summer Squall (1989), Boston Harbor (1996), and Favorite Trick (1997) all went on to win classics or awards of great distinction.
Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap, featuring top older horses from all over the Eastern half of the country, is taking shape as an excellent renewal of the track’s signature race.
Trainer Jimmy Jerkens saddles Star Grazing (#6, ML 4-1) in Thursday’s third race at Belmont Park, a one-mile allowance. Since Jan., 1, 2014, Jerkens is winning at a 30 percent clip in allowances, for a return on investment of $3.27.
Trainer Jorge Navarro decided on Thursday to run Private Zone in the $400,000 Belmont Park Sprint Championship on July 4 rather than the $250,000 Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park the next day.
It is difficult to separate the five fillies and mares running in a $25,000 optional claiming race that will serve as the feature at Northlands Park on Saturday. The six-furlong sprint kicks off the 8-race card that begins at 1:00 p.m. Mountain.
Trainer Brendan Walsh has been suspended 10 days by Kentucky stewards after a horse he trained tested positive for excessive levels of multiple painkillers, a violation that falls under the commission’s relatively new rules prohibiting “stacking” of drugs.
The Grade 3, $250,000 Iowa Derby, with its able cast of 10 3-year-olds, provides an opportunity for an improving colt or gelding to stamp himself as a viable graded stakes competitor.
The Iowa Festival of Racing continues on Saturday night with its trio of Grade 3 route races, commencing with the $200,000 Iowa Oaks, an 1 1/16-mile test that drew eight evenly matched 3-year-old fillies.
Hillaby, Canada’s reigning champion female sprinter, heads a quality field Saturday at Woodbine in the $100,000 Zadracarta, a seven-furlong turf event for Ontario-breds.
Steviefromstanley (#3, ML 7-2) returns in Thursday's seventh race at Canterbury Park, a one mile and 70-yard allowance. It will be his first start since finishing first by 9 lengths in a maiden special weight race May 29 at Canterbury Park. The second- and third-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.
