Strong case for My Sweet Dove
My Sweet Dove will have a trio of key variables working in her favor on Wednesday when she runs in the featured ninth race at Gulfstream Park West.
Mary RampelliniNov 03, 2014
My Sweet Dove will have a trio of key variables working in her favor on Wednesday when she runs in the featured ninth race at Gulfstream Park West.
Constitution's 2-year-old half-sister, Jacaranda, won Sunday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Tempted Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths over Paulassilverlining. She ran a mile under windy conditions in 1:40.24 and earned a 72 Beyer Speed Figure.
Though it wasn’t a very good weekend for him at the Breeders’ Cup, trainer Todd Pletcher did quite well at Aqueduct, winning two of the three graded stakes.
Nelson Bunker Hunt’s influence on racing has been felt in a sweeping way over the past month. It was Hunt who purchased a yearling named Palace Music, the sire of recently deceased Cigar, the horse remembered for capturing a nation back in 1995-96. And it was Hunt who served as confidant to the late John Gaines when Gaines began to formulate a concept that would become the Breeders’ Cup.
Wednesday’s sixth race at Churchill Downs, a $49,000 allowance with a $100,000 claiming condition, has the makings of a high-quality turf sprint, having drawn stakes-winning grass sprinters Hogy, Sum of the Parts, and Saint Leon.
Preliminary all-sources handle on the 13 Breeders’ Cup races held this year at Santa Anita on Friday and Saturday was $127.8 million, according to charts of the races, down 5.7 percent compared with betting last year of $135.5 million on 14 races, when the betting figures were also juiced by a carryover in the pick five.
Midnight Aria, appears to be on track to make his first stakes start since his Queen’s Plate triumph last year in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Autumn Stakes at Woodbine.
Boosted by massive betting interest on Sunday’s closing-day program, mutuel handle increased at the 25-day autumn meeting at Santa Anita, which included Breeders’ Cup races on Friday and Saturday.
Pohdi Pohdi appeared poised for a big run as the morning-line favorite in the Fanfreluche Stakes on Oct. 26 at Woodbine, but she had to be scratched after flipping on her way over to the paddock. Trainer Robert Tiller said Pohdi Pohdi escaped the incident without serious injury, but will be given the rest of the year off.
With one solid month remaining on the campaign trail and the ballots a long way from being tabulated, harness racing’s Horse of the Year is likely to go down to the wire both literally and figuratively. In a year that has been filled with some amazing performances, voters’ memories will be tested more so than ever.