In her first start for trainer Brad Cox last month, 3-year-old filly Margie’s Intention went from a Louisiana-bred bridesmaid to a graded stakes winner. With a queen-sized stakes victory in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan to her name, Margie’s Intention heads to Delaware Park as the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A top-class turf sprinter with a wicked turn of foot returns Saturday at Santa Anita in a Grade 3 his connections hope will lead to a third try at the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Motorious, however, is hardly a lock to win the Daytona Stakes in his first start of the season. Though he is the class of the field and the fastest on figures, Motorious is not the only graded stakes-winning veteran with credentials to win the hillside sprint.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Looking at the past performances, one would be hard pressed to know that Saturday’s $150,000 Cupecoy’s Joy Division of the New York Stallion Series is scheduled for the turf. Of the five 3-year-old fillies entered, only Disco Star has won on the grass and the pedigrees of the other four hardly scream turf.
Utah Beach, who is in the best form of his career, has wound up with a little extra competition in the $200,000 Chorleywood Stakes for older horses going 1 3/8 miles on the Churchill Downs turf in Saturday’s nightcap. Graded stakes winners Anglophile and Highway Robber were both supplemented here after the weather wreaked havoc on their stakes plans last week in Saratoga.
Confidence level on Sovereignty winning the Belmont? Through the roof. Confidence level a week later, with rain forecast at many tracks? Ground floor, tops. But if the house crumbles, siding with iffy chalk won’t be the cause.
Daytona
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The versatile Talk to Ya Later must avoid a bounce when she switches surfaces to turf and shortens up to 6 1/2 furlongs in Saturday’s Woodbine feature, a conditioned allowance with a $50,000 claiming option for fillies and mares.
Sometimes a change of scenery is all that’s required to get a horse straightened out.
Liz Kowalski was running a small string of horses this past winter at Turf Paradise when she noticed a young gelding by the name of Om Fire in the neighboring barn of Bart Hone.
“Bart Hone is a very good trainer,” said Kowalski, whose spring and summer base is Emerald Downs. “I watched this horse as he was training, and he wasn’t quite fitting in. I thought he’d be a good fit for our barn.”
Four horses coming off extended layoffs, including the multiple graded stakes-placed Nautical Star, are certain to make Friday’s $58,000 optional-claiming and allowance feature at Gulfstream Park a real handicapping challenge. The headliner will be decided at six furlongs over the main track and shares top billing on the nine-race program with an entry-level optional-claiming and allowance race for 3-year-old fillies going one mile on turf.
Trainer Jayde Gelner, who in 2023 swept both divisions of the Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity at Lone Star Park, has some notable candidates for this year’s renewal of the races. The 5 1/2-furlong stakes for 2-year-olds, which each carry a guaranteed purse of $50,000, will be run July 5.
Mor Force is an early favorite for the colts and geldings division after winning his debut with a Beyer Speed Figure of 84 on May 30 at Lone Star Park. He romped by five lengths to earn what is the third highest Beyer put up by a 2-year-old so far this year in North America.
