Balmoral: Saturday 5/30 Analysis
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Saturday 5/30 card at Balmoral Park.
Jeremey DayMay 28, 2015
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Saturday 5/30 card at Balmoral Park.
Trainer Chris Block is an Arlington guy. His family, Team Block, long has been among the leading breeders and owners in Illinois, and Block trains for Arlington chairman Dick Duchossois. No wonder his stock makes only rare appearances a few hours southeast at Indiana Grand, where Block has started only two horses during his career. But owing to changed circumstances in Illinois, Block is at Indiana with three horses for two turf stakes Saturday night. In a normal year, Nun the Less and Oak Brook would be starting in the Arlington Classic for 3-year-olds on grass, but that race was scrapped this year, and both are entered in the $75,000 PDJF (Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund) Stakes, a 7 1/2-furlong grass race for 3-year-olds.
Remington Park in Oklahoma City will put on its richest program in 28 years of operation on Saturday night, with $2.3 million in purses being distributed on a 12-race card.
Sarah Sis, the impressive winner of Oaklawn Park’s Grade 3 Honeybee on March 7, looks set to rebound from her aborted attempt in the Kentucky Oaks when she faces nine fellow 3-year-old fillies in Saturday night’s $75,000 Panthers Stakes.
Trainer Todd Pletcher sent out stakes hopefuls Rock Fall and Unitarian to breeze over the Belmont training track on Thursday.
Trainer Brian Lynch thought he’d found an easy spot for his turf sprint specialist Power Alert in Saturday’s $300,000 Evangeline Downs Turf Sprint. But the devastating weather that has plagued that area of the country this past week has forced Lynch to go to Plan B.
While the clock ticks down to the Most Important Belmont Stakes Ever Run on June 6, let’s pause to go once around the horn for this Saturday’s more modest menu of very good racing.
Despite the imposing presence of the undefeated Breeders’ Cup champion Lady Eli, a field of eight 3-year-old fillies was drawn Thursday for Sunday’s $200,000 Wonder Again.
The Pennsylvania Racing Commission has reversed an order by Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Pa., banning the trainer Juan Vazquez from its premises, according to a copy of the commission’s decision, though a second ban issued by the same track against Vazquez remains pending.
Work All Week’s extended layoff results in Alsvid being my value-based choice in Saturday’s Aristides Stakes at Churchill Downs.