Watchmaker: How I'd play Belmont Park on Saturday, June 13
With six of Saturday’s 10 races at Belmont Park scheduled to be run on turf, bettors are going to have to keep an eye to the sky.
Mike WatchmakerJun 12, 2015
With six of Saturday’s 10 races at Belmont Park scheduled to be run on turf, bettors are going to have to keep an eye to the sky.
At least one champion is planning to run in Saratoga Springs this summer.
After Willet won the Interborough Stakes on New Year’s Day, trainer and part-owner Jimmy Iselin said it more than likely would be the end of her career.
It’s not very often that an older horse wins a stakes and wheels right back in an allowance, but that will be the case Sunday when Courtesan runs for trainer Christophe Clement in the $62,800 feature at Churchill Downs.
The future appears to be bright for Bluegrass Angus, who rocketed to the head of the class of the local 3-year-old division with an impressive 6 1/4-length romp in the River Rock Casino last Saturday.
Kobe’s Back, the three-time stakes winner who finished sixth in the $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park on June 6, is unlikely to start again until late summer.
Dortmund was a tired colt after a fourth-place finish behind American Pharoah in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 16. The performance was enough of a disappointment for trainer Bob Baffert to call for a vacation for the winner of the $1 million Santa Anita Derby in April who also was third May 2 in the Kentucky Derby.
Trainers Reade Baker and Tom Amoss will try to turn back the clock a couple of years with the horses they entered in Monday’s $100,000 Karl Boyes Memorial Stakes at Presque Isle Downs.
The long-absent Souper Colossal, whose only loss in five career starts came when he stumbled at the start of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and Element, perfect in two starts since he was switched to turf, are the prime contenders among a group of 3-year-olds scheduled to sprint 5 1/2 furlongs on turf in Sunday’s $60,000 Select Stakes at Monmouth Park.
Back at home in an easier race, Sam’s Sister aims to reclaim her role as top female sprinter in California when she starts in the $75,000 Desert Stormer Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita.