Power Ped drops into Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile

PHOENIX – Some of the best grass runners on the circuit, male and female, take the spotlight Saturday as Turf Paradise cards two competitive turf stakes. The $75,000 Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile Handicap (race 7) drew a tough field of 10 4-year-olds and up, while the $30,000 Glendale Handicap (race 4), at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares, lured a field of 11.

While the Fitzsimmons matches many of the best local grass runners, the horse to beat is a new face. Power Ped, owned by Stepaside Farm LLC and trained by Neil Drysdale, is slated to ship in from Southern California to take the 124-pound highweight assignment. The 7-year-old gelded son of Powerscourt has been facing better in California and Kentucky, and this drop in class may get him back to the winner’s circle.

Power Ped is just 1 for his last 18, with that win coming 14 starts ago in the 2015 Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile. He comes off a fifth, beaten 1 3/4 lengths, in an optional claimer at Del Mar on Nov. 19.

Aventador, owned by Mark Staudacher and trained by Kathy Schenk, is the second highweight at 121 pounds. He comes off an impressive win in an optional claimer on the main track here Dec. 31, but four of his seven wins have come on turf.

Ride Hard Kowboy and Charlie Again, first and second when separated by a neck in the Walter R. Cluer Memorial at a mile on this course Nov. 26, are contenders. Aventador was another neck back in third in the Cluer.

Glendale: Three-way rematch

Ronda Rocks, French Alps, and Hip Ninety Three ran one-two-three in an allowance mile on turf here Dec. 14, with just a half-length separating the trio. They renew their rivalry in the Glendale.

Ronda Rocks, owned by Luigi and Diana DiPietro and trained by Cindy Krasner, comes here razor sharp, having finished first in four straight races, though she was disqualified from one of those wins. The 8-year-old mare has high speed and won three of those races in wire-to-wire fashion.

Prior to winning that Dec. 14 allowance race here, she beat many of her Glendale rivals in the Queen of the Green, only to get disqualified to second for bearing out late. She carries the high weight of 124 pounds in the Glendale.

French Alps, at 121 pounds, has won 17 of 36 and looms a big threat. Hip Ninety Three, at 123 pounds, was the beneficiary of the disqualification of Ronda Rocks in the Queen of the Green. Five of her six wins have come on this course. She is stuck with the outside post.