Remember when you took Thoroughbred Handicapping 101 and they told you that – rule of thumb – favorites win about a third of the races? How quaint. A 33 percent favorite strike rate these days falls at the low end of the spectrum. The chalk as of June 19 had won 42 percent of the 129 races run so far this Monmouth meet. Seems kind of high until you look back to 2018, when Monmouth favorites hit at a 49 percent clip.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Friend Ofthe Devil will be the horse to catch and beat as he looks to stay unbeaten sprinting over Aqueduct’s turf course in Saturday’s $150,000 Spectacular Bid division of the New York Stallion Series for 3-year-olds.
Determined Kingdom has given trainer Mike Trombetta more headaches than triumphs so far this year, but the winner’s circle might not be so far away. The 6-year-old turf sprinter will be a wild card among hard-knocking rivals in the $100,000 Ben’s Cat Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park.
The Ben’s Cat, a six-furlong turf sprint, is restricted to horses bred or sired in Maryland or Virginia. It could be an ideal spot for Determined Kingdom, a Virginia-bred gelding waiting for Colonial Downs to open this summer.
A fairytale trip to the Kentucky Derby. A roughing in the Preakness Stakes. Going to plan B due to a quarantine in New York – or avoiding a quarantine altogether. The storylines of the 3-year-olds entered in the Grade 3, $500,000 Ohio Derby converge Saturday at Thistledown, in a race that could be a springboard into other major summer races in the division.
Inisherin was a convincing 2 1/4-length winner as the 9-4 favorite in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup for 3-year-olds at Royal Ascot last June. He is back at the same world-class race meeting on Saturday with an excellent chance to win the $1.34 million Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes. Both the Commonwealth Cup and Jubilee Stakes are run at six furlongs on a straightaway course.
It was at this time two years ago that Kings River Knight’s career took off.
A 5-year-old in 2023, Kings River Knight won the Crystal Water Stakes for California-bred turf milers at Santa Anita in May of that year and the Bertrando Stakes for statebred milers on dirt a month later at Los Alamitos.
Those were the first two of his seven stakes wins, a tally expected to increase when Kings River Knight starts as a heavy favorite in Saturday’s $100,000 Bertrando Stakes at Los Alamitos.
Shadow of Light made the lead in the 2000 Guineas last month at Newmarket with about a furlong of the one-mile race remaining. He could not hold it, slipping back to third, and that is why Shadow of Light, instead of racing Tuesday at Royal Ascot in the one-mile St. James’s Palace Stakes, cuts back to six furlongs Friday for the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup.
