Grade 3 winners Title Contender and Commander head a solid field of older horses running in the $50,000 Sir Winston Churchill Handicap on Sunday at Hastings. The 1 1/16-mile Churchill drew nine horses and will share top billing on the eight-race card with the $50,000 Vancouver Sun Handicap.
Trainer George Weaver said that Tencendur will make his next start in the $500,000 Ohio Derby at ThistleDown on June 20.
Za Approval made his synthetic-surface debut with a third-place finish in his most recent start in the Grade 3 Vigil Stakes on May 17 and will be looking to find the winner’s circle this time around in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Eclipse Stakes at Woodbine.
Trainer Patrick Swan saddles Ganzumacher (#3, ML 3-1) in Friday’s sixth race at Prairie Meadows, a six-furlong claimer. Since Jan. 1, 2014, Swan is winning at a 31 percent clip in sprint races, for a return on investment of $11.03.
Trainer Barbara Heads is looking for an improved performance from Touching Promise when she stretches out to 1 1/16 miles in the $50,000 Vancouver Sun Handicap on Sunday at Hastings. The Sun goes as the sixth race, and there are no standouts in the first middle-distance stakes at the meet for fillies and mares that drew eight horses.
Indian Brut (#6, ML 5-1) returns in Friday’s second race at Belmont Park, a 6 1/2-furlong allowance. It will be his first start since finishing third by three lengths in an optional claimer March 15 at Gulfstream Park. The first- and second-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.
American Pharoah will be sponsored by Monster Energy Drinks for his attempt to win the Triple Crown in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York
The Jockey Club conducted the inaugural Pan American Conference in New York City on June 4-5, and the well-attended event produced a number of interesting takes on the state of racing and breeding in the Americas
BreezeFigs Quick-Pix for Saturday, June 6th by Bob Fierro and Jay Kilgore.
Preparing a horse to compete against the best older trotters in North America is no easy task. Coming off a career year, Natural Herbie is still seeking his first win of 2015 as he enters Saturday’s $200,000 Charlie Hill Memorial at Scioto Downs.
