The undisputed race of the day Saturday is at Santa Anita, where three-time champion Beholder will be challenged by last year’s Eclipse Award-winning 3-year-old filly, Stellar Wind, in the Grade 1, $400,000 Vanity Mile. The supporting feature there is the Grade 1, $400,000 Shoemaker Mile. Penn National, meanwhile, offers the Grade 3, $500,000 Penn Mile, which tops a card that includes three other stakes. Pennine Ridge Stakes This is the headliner at Belmont Park, and the two coming off stakes victories ahead of this prep for next month’s Belmont Derby – Camelot Kitten and Highland Sky – might simply be better than their competition. But I’m not convinced. Camelot Kitten responded to the addition of blinkers with a narrow decision in the American Turf, and maybe he’s on his way now. However, Camelot Kitten got a great setup in the American Turf – the pace was more contested and much faster than it projected to be on paper – and he doesn’t figure to get nearly as favorable a pace to rally into this time. Moreover, I wonder how strong a race the American Turf really was. I realize that third-place finisher Surgical Strike came back to win last week’s Arlington Classic, but he was life and death to do so as the strong favorite, and he actually regressed two Beyer Speed Figure points off his American Turf effort. For better or worse, my skepticism of the American Turf is key to my view of this race because I’m not only playing against Camelot Kitten but also the three others coming out of that race – Azar, Converge, and Dressed in Hermes. Highland Sky, the winner of the Woodhaven Stakes last time out, is improving, and I prefer him to Camelot Kitten. That said, I also have questions about the strength of the Woodhaven field, and I’m a little concerned that New York-bred allowance horses ran a bit faster than Highland Sky with a similar pace just two races earlier. I like Hammers Vision, who is back with straight 3-year-olds after facing six older allowance horses in his recent return from a seven-month layoff. And his second-place finish, a career-best effort for him, was even better than it looks on paper. Hammers Vision broke sharply and could have been clear early but was taken in hand. As a result, he wound up dueling three wide and then battling between horses through a pace that might have been very fast. It’s difficult to say for sure because the three other turf races on that card were all routes, but the fractions Hammers Vision was involved in were faster by huge margins. Perhaps the biggest indicator of a fast pace is that the three other horses chiefly involved in the pace with Hammers Vision all wound up badly beaten, finishing fifth, next to last, and a distant last as the even-money favorite. To his credit, Hammers Vision still had the lead in midstretch and was only run down late while fighting on gamely. He can be in complete control of the pace while stretching out Saturday, and I’m looking for a front-running upset. Penn Mile I’m playing against the form of the American Turf in the Pennine Ridge, but I think that race looks much stronger in the context of this event, and I’m going with Airoforce. Airoforce finished fourth in the American Turf after surprisingly setting the pace under pressure from Frank Conversation, the El Camino Real Derby winner who gave way to finish 13th and last, and Shakhimat, who was coming off a big win in the Transylvania Stakes and faded to ninth. Airoforce is much more effective coming from off the pace, as he demonstrated in his impressive win in the Bourbon Stakes and his second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last fall, and his connections have said that that will be his approach Saturday. As for Catch a Glimpse, she’s shooting for her seventh straight win, but she had to work harder than expected in her last two and is facing better company this time. Aristides Stakes Alsvid, my play here, showed how sharp he is when second in the Turf Sprint on the Kentucky Oaks undercard, and I really like the switch back to dirt for him Saturday. In fact, Alsvid is in his best form since he decisively won this race last year over Work All Week, the winner of the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and that year’s Eclipse Award-winning male sprinter. :: Bet Saturday's stakes with DRF Bets. Get a $200 cash bonus, including $50 free just for making a deposit! Find out more today.