Friday’s $72,000 first-level allowance feature at Aqueduct has everything one would expect from such a race this time of year: a European import making its U.S. debut for Christophe Clement; a top 3-year-old filly prospect trained by Chad Brown; and a horse making its first start off a layoff for David Donk.
Went the Day Well (#4, ML 12-1) takes on a field of seven in Wednesday’s eighth race at Aqueduct, a 1 1/8-mile optional claimer. Since Jan. 1, 2014, trainer Jimmy Jerkens is winning at a 28 percent clip in dirt races, for a return on investment of $3.38.
The first stakes action of the young Evangeline Downs season is set for Friday night as a full field of 12 fillies and mares are set to go in the $60,000 Matron Stakes. The one-mile test is slated for the turf, but handicappers and horsemen alike should perhaps prepare for a possible move to the main track if the recent weather pattern in Cajun country continues.
Chapter and Verse (#2, ML 5-2) will return to action in Wednesday’s sixth race at Keeneland, an about seven-furlong allowance. It will be his first start since a third-place finish by 3 3/4 lengths in a six-furlong optional claimer March 14 at Fair Grounds. The fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.
Moonshine Sipper will put his considerable speed on display when he tries winners for the first time in a $35,000 starter/optional claiming race that will serve as the feature race at Gulfstream Park on Friday.
I still like Dortmund to win the Kentucky Derby, but there is no way I can be as confident as I was with California Chrome last year.
After the final scoring race for the Kentucky Derby is run, the Derby Watch top 20 becomes entirely points driven, and any horse who works his way into the top 20 must be included, even if the Derby Watch committee doesn’t think much of his chances or even if his starting status is in doubt.
Horses to watch from Pocono Downs.
Golden Gate Fields will offer a big weekend of turf racing this weekend with the Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile scheduled for Saturday at the Albany, Calif., track and a pair of $100,000 turf stakes for Cal-breds Sunday.
The curtain comes down Friday at Keeneland, but not before one last encore. An overflow field of filly-mare turf marathoners with no clear-cut favorite has been assembled in what shapes up as a terrific closing-day feature, the 54th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Bewitch Stakes.
