At 1 1/4 miles on turf, Delacroix has been almost unbeatable this year, leaving the 3-year-old a deserving favorite in Saturday’s Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown Racecourse in Ireland.
Delacroix, trained by Aidan O’Brien for the Coolmore syndicate, won two Group 3 races for 3-year-olds at 1 1/4 miles in Ireland in the spring before he finished ninth as the 2-1 favorite in the Group 1 English Derby at 1 1/2 miles on June 7 at Epsom Downs in his only start at the distance.
There is Grade 1 quality in a pair of listed sprint stakes for older horses on Saturday’s Churchill Downs card.
In the $300,000 Louisville Thoroughbred Society, Bentornato makes his first start since a runner-up finish in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. The Grade 2 winner is part of a big field of 11 that includes six other graded stakes winners. One race earlier in the sister event, the $300,000 Open Mind for fillies and mares, Positano Sunset, winner of the Grade 1 Madison this spring, returns from a brief freshening.
Next spring’s 152nd running of the Kentucky Oaks is expected to bring together the best 3-year-old fillies from around the country. Fillies shipping in might have an edge in the first points race toward the Oaks, the Grade 3, $300,000 Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs on Saturday.
In a field of seven 2-year-old fillies going a one-turn mile, Dazzling Dame is the only prior stakes winner and only one to win at a mile to date. Fellow Mid-Atlantic shipper Embrace the Moment is stretching out and owns the highest Beyer Speed Figure in the field.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The stakes schedule for the 2025-26 Gulfstream Park Championship meeting will have a familiar look to it with the program again highlighted by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, and the $1 million Florida Derby.
The three Grade 1 events are the focal point of a stakes program that offers 68 races overall, 27 of them graded, and 38 of which are carded on turf. The stakes have a total value of $15.2 million.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Myriad circumstances have led to Love Appeals and Dontlookbackatall having limited campaigns so far in 2025. Thus, the two 5-year-old mares – both trained by Miguel Clement – come into Saturday’s $150,000 Floral Park Stakes at Aqueduct fresh and seemingly ready to make up for lost time.
The Floral Park, scheduled for six furlongs on turf, is the first of 45 stakes to be run at the Belmont at the Big A fall meeting.
If Wolfie’s Dynaghost has his way in the $100,000 Bert Allen Handicap at Colonial Downs on Saturday, the heavily favored 7-year-old might not trail a step.
“That seems to be the way he likes to run,” trainer Jonathan Thomas said of a potential front-running trip. “We’re not going to take that away from him.”
There’s room at the top for Man O Rose, a comeback gelding who might fill a void in the older California-bred division Saturday at Los Alamitos.
Man O Rose seeks a repeat in the $75,000 E.B. Johnston Stakes, a California-bred dirt mile he crushed last year by eight lengths. It’s different this season. Man O Rose has not started since November. Can he fire off the layoff?
“Against Cal-breds, yes,” trainer Jeff Mullins assured. “He’ll be fine.”
Of the two 3-year-old stakes that will be run at 1 1/8 miles on Saturday at Hastings, only one, the $125,000 British Columbia Derby, has been classified as a Grade 3. But there’s some question as to whether the $75,000 British Columbia Oaks might feature the stronger field.
“Over the course of the season, the boys haven’t been outstanding,” trainer Cindy Krasner said. “I think the fillies’ races have actually been tougher on paper than the boys.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard has Canadian champions Caitlinhergrtness and Fashionably Fab, along with new shooter Wild Pansy, entered among a field of 12 in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Ontario Matron on the Woodbine Mile undercard.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The $500,000 Natalma has evolved into an important Grade 1 fixture on the racing calendar. The last two editions of the stakes for 2-year-old fillies included the brilliant 2023 winner She Feels Pretty, currently the leading older female on turf in North America, and the future Grade 1 Alabama winner Nitrogen, who ran third last year en route to being crowned Canadian champion 2-year-old filly.
