J C's Action back for Heritage Day

J C’s Action returns to Marquis Downs and should play a starring role Saturday in the Lakeland on Heritage Day, one of the highlights of the 30-day meeting. Six stakes for Saskatchewan-breds will be offered on the nine-race program.

Older males will go in the Lakeland, and fillies and mares in the Horizon, with those one-mile races each worth $10,000. The other Heritage races, worth $20,000 apiece, are the Shortgrass for 3-year-old males, the Parkland for 3-year-old fillies, the Western for 2-year-old males, and the Woodland for 2-year-old fillies.

J C’s Action won the Western Heritage as a 2-year-old and the Shortgrass Heritage as a 3-year-old before just missing in the open Saskatchewan Derby. After winning three straight against the top older horses on the grounds this year, J C’s Action journeyed to Edmonton’s Northlands Park where he finished seventh and last for a $17,500 claiming price.

Back now with his regular trainer Fern Zdunick and jockey Tim Moccasin, J C’s Action should add the lion’s share of the Lakeland Heritage purse to his already healthy bankroll of $72,310.

Dark Ages was an easy winner of the Horizon Heritage last year, and will be looking to repeat. But she may have her hands full with the sharp Striking Royale, who won the Woodland Heritage and the Parkland Heritage in her first two campaigns.

Besnard short price in the Shortgrass Heritage. He was a romping winner of the Western Heritage last year, and returned to form when making his local seasonal bow in a one-mile allowance race on July 31.

Marge’s Action and Sizzling Song, the one-two finishers in last year’s Woodland Heritage, will renew acquaintances in the one-mile Parkland Heritage, but could be upstaged by recent Sales Stakes winner Honorary Girl.

Striking Time, a winner of his two starts by an aggregate 13 3/4 lengths, will be a prohibitive favorite for Zdunick and Stephenson in the six-furlong Western Heritage.

Tingle and Silver Mint Deputy, who finished a neck apart when one-two in the filly division of the restricted six-furlong Gold Strike, will renew their rivalry in the Woodland Heritage at the same distance.