Weekend GamePlan for June 4, 2022: Picks for Pennine Ridge, Royal North, Crestwood

It’s getting frustrating, these short Saturday stakes fields. Santa Anita has two potentially nice races, but each drew a mere five entrants. Belmont’s feature, the Pennine Ridge, got only six in the field’s main body, no huge surprise since there’s a race in the same division the night before at Penn National and another on Saturday at Churchill Downs. Nonetheless, we’ll try to bob and weave our way into a decent-priced stakes winner or two.

Pennine Ridge

Twice in the last five years, trainer Todd Pletcher has made a dirt-to-turf move with a stakes horse who went off at odds of less than 4-1. Both those horses won, and Emmanuel, who makes that move Saturday, might well be favored in the Grade 2 Pennine Ridge. I liked the horse in the Blue Grass, where he caved with surprisingly little resistance when collared by eventual runner-up Smile Happy in upper stretch.

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The appeal at Keeneland was Emmanuel’s lone-speed status and that will be the case again in his turf debut. DRF’s David Grening gave a favorable report on a recent Emmanuel grass work, and I’d imagine he’ll take quite a bit of beating with an easy lead Saturday.

Chad Brown has two entrants, and the astute NYRA linemaker David Aragona has made Unanimous Consent the 8-5 favorite, pegging Brown’s second runner Napoleonic War at 3-1. Napoleonic War last out was life and death to beat Quality G., who did not cover himself in glory last Sunday at Monmouth in the Jersey Derby. Unanimous Consent is unbeaten after three starts, winning each of them cozily, though it’s fair to question the quality of his competition.

I’m going with “none of the above” and betting Elizar in just his second start and North American debut.

Quality of competition is an issue that also applies to this French import, who now resides in Christophe Clement’s barn. That Chantilly all-weather maiden race he won last October hardly was filled with budding prospects for the Prix du Jockey-Club. But wow, did Elizar win that well. Saying he was “held up” in last doesn’t quite tell the tale, since Elizar seemed perfectly happy dawdling along in last place through the early and middle stages. Spun out wide, he came into contention without being asked for anything and just whistled past everyone with a remarkable burst of speed. His last 400 meters? A brilliant 22.12 seconds. Joel Rosario might have gone to ride Pauline’s Pearl at Churchill Downs on Saturday but winds up instead on this colt, and we know Clement excels with French imports. Let’s see what Elizar can do.

Royal North

This filly-and-mare turf sprint is crazy: eight entrants, four trained by Mark Casse, three for Josie Carroll, and one shipper from the Al Stall barn.

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Only two 4-year-olds run, with the rest older horses whose form has been well exposed. Among them, Amalfi Coast looks best here to me, but she’s a 6-year-old, and the younger horses are the ones with latitude to improve. I doubt that the 4-year-old Souper Sensational really is a turf horse, but the 4-year-old Lady War Machine absolutely appears to be.

Lady War Machine is by the excellent turf-sprint sire Street Boss and it’s no coincidence her career peak came in her lone grass start. Yes, Lady War Machine raced close to a moderate pace in that race, the Alywow, run over this distance on the Woodbine course, but she was stuck inside another pace player the entire trip before kicking clear nicely after cornering for home.

Lady War Machine has every right to improve as a 4-year-old and surely Carroll has her ready for something competitive off a very long string of works. There’s online video of her turf breeze from March 26, and I thought she was going better than workmate Ephrata, an overseas import who won her North American debut, a May 14 Woodbine maiden, by more than nine lengths.

Crestwood

Hawthorne has assembled a solid, competitive field for this-female dirt sprint, but Charlie’s Penny will win if she’s as ready as I think she is following a 1 1/2-year layoff. The filly twice suffered hairline fractures that required healing time but ought not compromise her performance, and trainer Chris Block had her ready to roll in her career debut, an eye-catching sprint win. Charlie’s Penny just has more quality than these foes, and in a pace-packed field ought to get a very favorable setup.