Ian Wilkes trains the best 1 1/2-mile grass horse in North America, Burnham Square, but on Friday at Churchill will try to win the co-featured seventh race on the other end of the turf spectrum.
In the turf sprint, Wilkes sends out Justinqueso over 5 1/2 furlongs in a female-restricted second-level allowance race with an $80,000 claiming option. If Justinqueso runs like she did in a race at this class level and distance April 29, she can’t win. If she runs back to her better 2025 form, she can.
Wesley Ward could have seven chances next month to win his first Royal Ascot race since 2021.
Ward pioneered sending American horses to Royal Ascot, winning his first race there in 2009 long before the June meeting became a fashionable destination for a wide swath of American horse people. Ward has won a dozen Royal Ascot races but has gone winless since the 3-year-old filly Campanelle won the Commonwealth Cup five summers ago.
While trainer Jose D’Angelo continues to be based primarily at the Palm Meadows training center in South Florida, he will be at Saratoga early next month, where he’ll send out 2026 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Bentornato in the Grade 3 True North Stakes on June 6. Bentornato is expected to meet Book’em Danno, who edged him out by a narrow margin in the voting for the 2025 Eclipse Award in the sprint division.
For a horse who posted Beyer Speed Figures between 84 and 97 in all seven starts last season, it’s hard to believe Hop Sing is still eligible for the nonwinners-of-two allowance condition. But that is the type of race in which Hop Sing will kick off his 2026 campaign as the likely favorite against six rivals going a mile on the main track in Friday’s featured $70,000 allowance at Gulfstream Park.
Trainer Mark Casse said he didn’t know if Final Accord was a true miler, but he knows the 3-year-old filly isn’t a 5 1/2-furlong sprinter. While he waits for the ideal one-turn race to come along, his filly keeps competing and should be a contender in the $150,000 Penn Oaks on Friday at Penn National.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Jockeys Ernesto Valdez-Jiminez and Isaiah Wiseman may miss the remainder of the Lone Star meet due to injuries sustained in a Sunday spill.
Wiseman suffered deep bone bruising and a laceration on his face and tongue, according to agent Bradley White. Wiseman could return to action at the end of the meet or wait until the start of Remington Park’s meet, White said.
Valdez-Jiminez had successful surgery Monday for injuries sustained in an area below his right knee, according to agent Travis Church.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Norm Tremblay traveled 2,300 miles from his home in Grande Prairie in Alberta, Canada, to Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, to watch a horse he owns in partnership, Heroic Move, win the Grade 3, $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile for the second time in his career Monday.
Tremblay’s next trip could be to Altoona, Iowa, for the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap on July 11 at Prairie Meadows.
Heroic Move is under serious consideration for the race after emerging from the Steve Sexton Mile in good order, trainer Robertino Diodoro said Tuesday.
On April 4, five weeks after returning from serious injuries that sidelined him 106 days, jockey Dylan Davis won his first graded stakes when he guided Always a Runner to victory in the Grade 3 Gazelle at Aqueduct. That’s the good news.
Four weeks later, when Always a Runner won the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, it was Jose Ortiz who was on the filly’s back. Davis picked up the mount on Lovely Grey, who finished 12th in the 13-horse field.
ARCADIA, Calif. – An overachieving filly going up in class and an underachieving filly stuck going sideways present parimutuel challenges in separate allowance sprints Friday at Santa Anita.
Holdthatrainbow was not supposed to win first out because maidens trained by Carla Gaines rarely do. But Holdthatrainbow popped anyway at $16.20. Expectations are higher Friday in race 5, a six-furlong turf race for Cal-bred 3-year-old fillies. Holdthatrainbow is listed at even-money.
