Weekend Warrior for Saturday, May 23: Picks for Louisville, Majestic Light, Prairie Rose
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Landing between Preakness week and Memorial Day, Saturday’s racing is short on top-class stakes. Just two graded stakes are on the docket: the Grade 3 Louisville Handicap at Churchill Downs and the Grade 2 Nassau at Woodbine.
Not having a strong opinion in the Nassau, let’s take a crack at the Louisville and two lesser stakes, the Majestic Light at Monmouth and the Prairie Rose at – where else? – Prairie Meadows.
Louisville Handicap
A 1 1/2-mile turf marathon, the Louisville Handicap has never been among the elite races for grass stayers, no doubt due in part to its small purse of $100,000. This year’s renewal reflects that, largely drawing horses whom you could just as easily spot in an allowance.
The class is Patrioticandproud, a stakes winner on turf who ran second a couple of times over the winter in California behind Finnegans Wake, who won the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic here on Derby Day.
Let’s hope his somewhat-ordinary recent form won’t make him a standout to bettors. It certainly didn’t to oddsmaker Mike Battaglia, who made him 9-2.
This is a horse with valid excuses for his last three races. First, his connections took a shot in the Santa Anita Handicap for a $1 million purse, and he was outrun, and then he was unlucky with the weather in his last two races. Entered for grass, both of those starts were moved to dirt, and he ran second and third.
Odds of 3-1 or 7-2 look fair on Patrioticandproud.
Majestic Light
One of the better wagering stakes on Saturday is the Majestic Light, which drew a competitive field of 11 going a mile and 70 yards on dirt.
The placement of the starting gate so close to the first of two turns should give inside-drawn horses a ground-saving edge, but even taking that into account, I couldn’t get past Red Vine, who breaks from post 9 but is 2 for 2 since moving to dirt.
A modest turf horse for the first 13 starts of his career, Red Vine has elevated his performances on the main track, first winning a 1 1/8-mile, off-the-turf race at Aqueduct on Dec. 4 and then winning one there April 1 against true dirt horses.
In each race, he rated kindly behind the leaders and then blew past them, rallying to the lead by midstretch before pulling away.
Admittedly, he is not a proven stakes horse, such as likely favorite Valid, but Red Vine looks ready for this challenge. And if Valid is entertained on the lead Saturday, Red Vine just might pull off a mild upset.
Prairie Rose
Evidently, the Prairie Meadows oddsmaker believes the Prairie Rose is competitive, making six of the nine entrants from 4-1 to 6-1 odds, with my choice, Electric Temptress, listed at 5-1.
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If only we could lock in those prices because I’m expecting Electric Temptress to get cut to something more like 5-2. A winner of three straight allowances at Oaklawn in the slop this year, she faced better stakes horses in the Carousel last out at Oaklawn and crossed the wire fourth, only to get elevated to third when Chortle, the unofficial third-place horse, was disqualified for causing interference at the start.
Electric Temptress certainly had a rough trip early. Off a beat slow when she turned her head right before the starter let them go, she was then shut off in a chain reaction, resulting in her being much farther off the pace than usual.
She made a decent wide turn move to reach contention thereafter but then understandably flattened out in the lane.
Those willing to look past that race will note how quickly Electric Temptress ran in a pair of races in the slop at Oaklawn that preceded the Carousel, earning Beyer Speed Figures in the 80s. Maybe she just loved the slop there, but given her winning ways over numerous types of conditions, she is just as capable of running quickly on a fast surface.