Talco has tough task in Shoemaker

ARCADIA, Calif. – Talco, the winner of the Thunder Road Stakes in April, faces the most difficult test of his career in Saturday’s $400,000 Shoemaker Mile. He is part of a probable small field in the Grade 1 turf race, which is expected to be led by the star Brazilian import Bal a Bali and Midnight Storm, who won the Del Mar Derby last August.

Midnight Storm may hold the advantage in the race as the expected pacesetter. Talco is a closer who could be hampered by a slow pace, trainer John Sadler said.

“A lot of it has to do with the small field and how the race sets up,” Sadler said. “I have a feeling no one will go with Midnight Storm. I don’t have a speed horse.”

The Shoemaker Mile likely will include the stakes winners Seek Again and possibly Winning Prize. The race is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re in program, offering a fees-paid berth to the BC Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 31.

Beholder, a two-time champion, and Warren’s Veneda, who won the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Invitational in March, are the leading contenders in Saturday’s $100,000 Adoration Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.

The Grade 3 Adoration will be their first meeting. Beholder was scratched from the Grade 1 Vanity Stakes on May 9 because of illness. Warren’s Veneda was third in that race behind My Sweet Addiction, who runs in Saturday’s Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Sadler has an outstanding chance for a graded stakes win later this month when Stellar Wind starts in the $200,000 Summertime Oaks for 3-year-old fillies on June 20. Stellar Wind won the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks this year before finishing fourth in the $1 million Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 1.

Following that race, Sadler gave Stellar Wind a brief rest before she resumed training. On Wednesday, Stellar Wind worked six furlongs in 1:11.60.

“She looked really bright,” Sadler said.

The Grade 2 Summertime Oaks is run at 1 1/16 miles.

Stellar Wind was beaten 4 3/4 lengths by Lovely Maria in the Kentucky Oaks.

“She was running at the end,” he said. “She didn’t grab the track.”

Owned by Kosta and Pete Hronis, Stellar Wind has won 3 of 5 starts and earned $373,200.