Realistic expectations have no place in the 2-year-old division at Santa Anita this spring. Since the first race for juveniles was run April 30, one pair of owners has dominated the action. Paul and Zillah Reddam, best known for winning the 2012 Kentucky Derby with I’ll Have Another, have had six 2-year-olds win maiden special-weight races.
Stellar Wind, fourth in the Kentucky Oaks on May 1, is part of a projected field of nine in Saturday’s $200,000 Summertime Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.
Indian Brava will try and rebound from the worst performance of her career when she runs in the $50,000 R.K. (Red) Smith Handicap on Friday night at Northlands Park.
The well-traveled Beat of the Drum arrived at trainer Leonard Powell’s stable in Southern California in February and will make her American debut in a second-level optional 62,500 claimer at a mile on dirt in Friday’s seventh race at Santa Anita.
Overnight purses for the summer meeting at Del Mar will start lower than at last year’s summer meet because of a seven-figure debt carried forward from the purse pool last year.
The first stop on the National Steeplechase Association’s Summer Jump-Racing Showcase is Monmouth Park, where three hurdle races are part of Friday’s program.
Horses to watch from Pocono Downs.
Horses to watch from Mohawk Racetrack.
Jannes Paul (#3, ML 8-1) returns in Wednesday's sixth race at ThistleDown, a six-furlong optional claimer. It will be her first start since finishing fourth by 9 1/4 lengths in an allowance May 17 at Mountaineer Park. The third-, fifth-, and sixth-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.
Brewster Smith's analysis of the Thursday 6/18 card at Yonkers Raceway.
