Tale of Verve and Bodhisattva, the two horses who could be the longest prices in what is shaping up as a small field for the 140th Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico, both had their final workouts Sunday.
Palace (#3, ML 3-1) takes on a talented field in Sunday’s eighth race at Belmont Park, the six-furlong Diablo Stakes. Since Jan. 1, 2014, trainer Linda Rice is winning at a 30 percent clip in stakes races, for a return on investment of $2.07.
While there are some good races on the main track, notably Palace against Palace Malice in the Diablo Stakes, the grass races on Sunday’s card at Belmont are what I’m most interested in for wagering purposes.
They ran four graded stakes races Saturday at Belmont Park, and yet the first topic brought up by the few folks I spent the day there with was American Pharoah and whether he could do it again in the Preakness and come to the Belmont Stakes with a shot of sweeping the Triple Crown. It says something about American Pharoah that he has captured the imagination of even hardened horseplayers.
Swept Up (#3, ML 9-2) returns in Sunday's third race at Churchill Downs, a six-furlong allowance. It will be her first start since a fourth-place finish by a half length in an optional claimer March 22 at Oaklawn Park. The third- and fifth-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.
Cainam came from far behind, circled his eight Iowa-bred rivals, and closed ground with his usual ferocity to win Saturday night's $79,000 John Wayne Stakes by a neck.
Pyro upset Quarter Horse world champion Jrc Callas First in Saturday night’s Grade 2, $50,000 Sam Houston Classic, winning by 1 3/4 lengths in the race in which Jrc Callas First finished third.
Supermason has risen to the forefront in the Texas Stallion Stakes program, winning his second race in the series by a commanding margin Saturday night at Lone Star Park. In the $75,000 fillies division of the Texas Stallion Stakes, Infectious ran down Santacafe for a 3 1/4-length win.
Central Heat extended her winning streak to four straight and captured the first stakes of her career, rallying through the stretch to win the $61,615 Golden Poppy Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday.
The 2013 Horse of the Year Bee A Magician has looked very strong in two starts as a 5-year-old. She easily dispatched nine rivals in Saturday's Arthur J Cutler Memorial prep at the Meadowlands.
