Two changes help Sheer Drama in Fleur de Lis
Two differences between the May 1 La Troienne and Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs suggest Sheer Drama has a prime opportunity to pick up a victory.
Byron KingJun 11, 2015
Two differences between the May 1 La Troienne and Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs suggest Sheer Drama has a prime opportunity to pick up a victory.
Once again, Beholder’s season is in the reboot phase. She will be heavily favored to win the 10th stakes of her career Saturday in the $100,000 Adoration Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.
Trainer Shug McGaughey isn’t sure what distance will ultimately prove to be the best for his Metropolitan Handicap winner, Honor Code. But he will give the ridgling a chance to prove himself against top-quality competition around two turns when he runs him next in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney Stakes on Aug. 8 at Saratoga.
Sweet Reason, a three-time Grade 1-winning filly and earner of more than $1.4 million, has been retired due to a tendon injury, her trainer, Leah Gyarmati, said Thursday.
Killin Me Smalls will try to complete the hat trick when he runs in the $50,000 Spangled Jimmy on Saturday at Northlands Park. The one-mile race for 3-year-olds and up drew 10 horses and headlines a nine-race card that begins at 1 p.m. Mountain.
Sailingforthesun will try to get back on track when she runs in a first-level allowance race for 3-year-old fillies that will serve as Saturday’s feature at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint, which also carries a $25,000 claiming option, drew six horses, and despite basically being eased in her last start in a similar race May 23, Sailingforthesun looks like the one to catch and beat.
Somewhere, Matt Winn is smiling. The man widely credited with shaping the Kentucky Derby into an iconic slice of Americana would fully approve of all the festivities Saturday night at Churchill Downs, especially the raucous cheers that will greet Triple Crown winner American Pharoah when the colt is paraded before his adoring fans.
So now what? Having a Triple Crown winner in our midst for the first time in almost four decades allows us to ask a question we haven’t heard since Affirmed was a 4-year-old in 1979: Where should the Triple Crown winner run next? In addition to celebrating American Pharoah’s present, we get to speculate about his future.
After picking up small pieces of the purse in a pair of Grade 3 stakes, Encryption returns to a class level on Saturday at Monmouth Park at which he has excelled.
Like all of his rivals, Super Colerosa will compete on the grass for the first time in Saturday’s $125,000 Bold Ruckus Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds.