Aristides to match Mr. Crow, Wilbo

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The first of two Downs After Dark night programs during the post-Kentucky Derby segment of the spring meet will be run Saturday with the Grade 3, $100,000 Aristides as the feature.

Mr. Crow, a lightly raced 4-year-old with big Beyer Speed Figures, and Wilbo, a 6-year-old who most recently was second in the Count Fleet at Oaklawn Park, head the prospective lineup for the six-furlong Aristides. Other probables include Awesome Saturday, Chief Cicatriz, and Shadow Tracer.

Accompanying the Aristides on an 11-race card (first post, 6 p.m. Eastern) will be the $75,000 Mighty Beau, a five-furlong turf race for 3-year-olds and up. Saturday entries were drawn Monday.

The Foster card will be the last Saturday night card of the meet, with the meet finale (June 30) being a daytime card.

Monomoy Girl stays sharp

Churchill officials allowed Monomoy Girl to breeze about 30 minutes prior to the first race Sunday, after the track had dried out from overnight rain, and the Kentucky Oaks winner responded with a five-furlong drill in a bullet 59.40 seconds in company with her Brad Cox-trained stablemate Dazzling Gem. Monomoy Girl will make her next start in the Grade 1 Acorn on the June 9 Belmont Stakes card.

“I couldn’t be any happier with her right now,” said Cox.

◗ A four-day race week will begin with a couple of outstanding programs, with three allowances on an eight-race Thursday card (first post, 5 p.m) and four allowances on a nine-race Friday card (first post, 12:45 p.m.).

Thursday not only starts the second half of the meet as the 20th of 38 programs, but it’s also the first with a 10 percent purse increase recently announced for all overnight races. The fifth race Friday, a second-level allowance at seven furlongs, is particularly compelling as it matches three fillies making their first starts since the Kentucky Oaks: Kelly’s Humor (eighth), Classy Act (10th), and Rayya (13th).

◗ Lone Sailor, eighth in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Preakness, will make his next start in the June 23 Ohio Derby at Thistledown, said trainer Tom Amoss.

◗ Miss Kentucky, winner of the Grade 3 Winning Colors here Saturday, probably will run back at this meet in the $75,000 Roxelana, a six-furlong race June 23, said trainer Rusty Arnold.

◗ At Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., Bolt d’Oro drilled five furlongs Monday in a bullet 57 seconds in preparation for the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile on the June 9 Belmont Stakes card.