Emerald Downs fans will not have to wait for the start of stakes racing on June 21 to see a stakes-caliber race. That will come in Sunday’s fourth race, a $26,000 no-conditions allowance that will be contested at 5 1/2 furlongs.

While the five-horse field is as small as they come, it features a Grade 3 winner (Rondelito), two local stakes winners (Slew’s Tiz Whiz, Si That Tiger), and two low-level allowance types (Executive Chef, Jin Tong) who are capable of finding their way into the winner’s circle against the likes of these on their best day.

The Belmont Stakes Festival in a couple weeks should be awesome. The $2 million (!) Stephen Foster is coming up gangbusters. This Saturday in May? Not much more than the sound of crickets coast to coast. We’ll look at three grass races, two of which could be affected by rain.

Crystal Water

Trainer Todd Pletcher has run at least two horses in the Belmont Stakes in each of the last 13 years and 15 times overall.

He is likely to continue that trend this year. Already set to run Kentucky Derby runner-up Renegade in the 158th Belmont on June 6, Pletcher is strongly considering starting recent maiden winner Powershift as well. For the third straight year, this year’s Belmont will be run at Saratoga and at 1 1/4 miles.

In two losses this year, Grand Slam Smile has finished behind top-level fillies in one-mile turf races.

Grand Slam Smile was third behind Thought Process in the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes in February and third by a length behind Take A Breath and May Day Ready in the Grade 3 Royal Heroine Stakes at Santa Anita on April 25.

Those fillies are entered in Monday’s Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Daniel Leitch recorded his first – and thus far only – career stakes victory at Aqueduct when American Apple upset the Grade 3 Matron Stakes at 47-1 in the fall of 2022. Saturday, Leitch returns to Aqueduct seeking his next stakes success when he starts Twilight Delight in the $150,000 Paradise Creek Stakes for 3-year-olds.

The Paradise Creek, scheduled for six furlongs on the outer turf, is named for the multiple Grade 1-winning turf router. It drew a field of nine with hardly a standout among them.

Horses from seven different states have descended on Shakopee, Minn., for Saturday’s opening-night card at Canterbury Park.

The seven-race program drew runners who last started in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. In the first race alone, four of the five runners entered last ran at Tampa Bay Downs.

Unrivaled Time is the only graded stakes winner in Saturday’s $125,000 Snow Chief Stakes for statebred 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.

It’s a fine status, but no guarantee he will beat nine rivals in a turf race at 1 1/8 miles, the longest distance of his brief career.

Last Saturday at Gulfstream Park, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. entered five fillies in the Monroe Stakes, ran four, and won the race with Turino. This Saturday at Gulfstream Park, Joseph has entered four fillies in the $100,000 Game Face Stakes with plans to start three of them in search of similar success in the afternoon’s main event to be decided at six furlongs over the main track.

A wet weather forecast and a cold pace scenario complicate analysis of the $250,000 Keertana Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs, where more than an inch of rain could fall between Thursday night and Saturday afternoon.

Regardless of conditions, the seven-entrant Keertana is forecast to unfold at a snail’s pace.

Seven older fillies and mares went into the Keertana, a 1 1/2-mile turf race run around three turns, and Ayra Stark’s 9-5 morning-line favoritism stems in great part because, on paper, she’s the controlling pace.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – King’s Plate winners Paramount Prince and Mansetti will renew their newfound rivalry in Saturday’s featured conditioned allowance with an $80,000 claiming option going seven furlongs at Woodbine.