Seven stakes for Iowa-breds close meet
When Prairie Meadows concludes its spring/summer Thoroughbred meet Saturday on Iowa Classic Day, parades are the theme – first with the human variety in the area surrounding the track at 11 a.m. Central, followed by an equine parade of seven stakes for Iowa-bred runners as part of an 11-race card, with first post at 1 p.m.
The seven stakes totaling $671,000 cover a range of ages and divisions and span distances from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles on Prairie Meadows’s dirt track.
Among the most interesting is the sixth race, the $90,000 Iowa Cradle for 2-year-old colts and geldings at six furlongs, where 10 locals take on Kentucky invader Han Sense, a Hansen first-time starter who has recorded several bullet works at the Churchill Downs Trackside center for trainer Mike Maker and owner Dr. Kendall Hansen.
Those same connections raced the sire, with Maker as trainer and Hansen owning the horse first in entirety before later selling an interest to Skychai Racing prior to the horse winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in 2011. Hansen was voted the champion juvenile of that year.
Han Sense, a $125,000 yearling purchase last summer at the Fasig-Tipton July sale, “acts like a nice colt, but he is obviously giving up seasoning,” Maker said.
Ramon Vasquez, in a close battle with Alex Birzer to be the meet’s leading rider, has the mount.
Fools Rushin, Basic Chance, and Molleck head the local opposition.
◗ Four of the stakes carry purses of $100,000 or more, with those races, all routes, being the Gov. Terry E. Branstad for older males, the Donna Reed for older fillies and mares, the Iowa Breeders’ Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, and the Iowa Breeders’ Derby for 3-year-old colts and geldings.
Net Gain, a rare Iowa-bred who sold at auction for $325,000 in 2014, should be a short price in the Branstad, the opener on the card, having won the Iowa Breeders’ Derby last year by 6 1/4 lengths and having been first or second in all four of his races in 2016.
The eighth race, the Donna Reed, appears to be wide open, with the uncoupled duo of Lynn Chleborad-trained mares, Ella’s Glory and Stelawithanatitude perhaps holding a slight edge over the rest of the field.
Heavy favorites loom in both the Iowa Breeders’ Oaks and Iowa Breeders’ Derby, which follow the Donna Reed as the ninth and 10th races. The Oaks has an even-money favorite in dual route-stakes winner Mywomanfromtokyo, and the Derby has a 3-5 favorite in One Fine Dream, who enters off three straight stakes victories, including his latest by 11 lengths.
◗ The juvenile-filly counterpart race to the Iowa Cradle, the $90,000 Iowa Sorority, projects as a battle between first-out maiden winners Bossy Em and Theperfectvow, both of whom hold significant Beyer Speed Figure edges over the opposition, with Bossy Em running a 55 in her maiden win and Theperfectvow getting a 54. No other horse in the race has run higher than a 49, with that filly being For a Small Ransom, who finished a distant seventh in the Prairie Gold Lassie on July 28 against open company after the maiden win in which she ran a 49 Beyer.
The day concludes with the $85,000 Dan Johnson Sprint for 3-year-olds and up, a race that looks to be among the most competitive on the afternoon. Five of the 11 entrants have last-race Beyers between 75 and 77, and many have raced within close margins of each other in head-to-head matchups.
Ooey Gooey, sixth last out over a muddy track when venturing out of Iowa-bred company and racing in an allowance on a muddy track, is a rebound candidate on a fast track.
Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast for Saturday, with a high temperature in the low to mid-80s.