Still perfect in three synthetic starts this year, 3-year-old colt Iron Hand will take on a gauntlet of new foes in Friday’s eighth race, a $58,000 allowance at Gulfstream Park. He has not yet found an equal in the Florida ranks since switching surfaces.
“He’s doing great, going in the right direction,” trainer Jose D’Angelo said. “I think we’ll see that the key to everything is keeping him on the Tapeta, where he likes. I have the feeling that as long as he runs, he can do better.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association will be offering many multiple-day wagers during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.
Beginning Thursday, there was a two-day pick four using races 9 (Grade 3 Poker) and 10 on Thursday with races 1 and 2 on Friday. There is a two-day pick four using Friday’s 13th (Grade 1 Just a Game) and 14th with races 1 and 2 Saturday. Both races have a 50-cent base and a 24 percent takeout.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Choisya, who shipped in from England to win the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland in April and has shipped back in again from England for Friday’s Grade 1 Just a Game here, is expected to remain in the United States for the summer, co-trainer Ed Crisford said.
Crisford said provided Choisya runs well in the Just a Game, at one mile, she would be pointed to the Grade 1 Diana, at 1 1/8 miles here July 12. Choisya, a 5-year-old daughter of Night of Thunder, won the Group 2 Balanchine at Meydan in Dubai at 1 1/8 miles earlier this year.
SARATOGA, SPRINGS, N.Y. – Gosger, the Preakness runner-up, returned to the work tab Wednesday at Churchill Downs, breezing a half-mile in 49.20 seconds. Gosger is preparing for a probable start in the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell on July 19 at Monmouth Park, trainer Brendan Walsh said.
“He came out of the Preakness in good order, we gave him an easy time of it since, and we’ll look forward to having him for the second half of the year,” Walsh said. “The Haskell looks like our plan with him.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – More often than not when he’s come to the Belmont Stakes, trainer Bob Baffert has had the horse to beat. In five of the 12 Belmonts in which he’s run, Baffert was attempting to complete a Triple Crown, something American Pharoah did in 2015 and Justify accomplished in 2018.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Immersive, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2024 who was sidelined earlier this year by bone bruising, is scheduled to make her 3-year-old debut in the $175,000 Monomoy Girl Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 14, trainer Brad Cox said.
At 1 1/16 miles, the Monomoy Girl could set Immersive up for a return to graded stakes company later this summer at Saratoga with potential spots being the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 19 and/or the Grade 1 Alabama on Aug. 16.
Brilliant at a mile, Desert Flower can become the 50th 3-year-old filly to complete the English 1000 Guineas and English Oaks double if she can handle the longer distance of the Group 1 Oaks on Friday at Epsom Downs.
Trained by Charlie Appleby for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing, Desert Flower won her 3-year-old debut with a one-length win as the even-money favorite in the English 1000 Guineas at a mile on May 4 at Newmarket. The win extended her undefeated record to five races, all at seven furlongs or a mile.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The meet’s leading jockey-trainer combo of apprentice Pietro Moran and Kevin Attard will send out Arami’s Speightster in Friday’s fifth race at Woodbine.
The sneaky good duo of journeyman Rafael Hernandez and Dale Desruisseaux also will be in action then with Lasting Silence. Both 3-year-olds are dropping from Ontario-sired/$40,000 maiden company to $25,000 in the seven-furlong Tapeta sprint, and they look like the protagonists in the seven-horse field.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Plenty has changed in the seven months since the last starts by Sunset Glory and Circle of Trust. Friday at Santa Anita will determine if the stakes winners have changed as well.
Circle of Trust’s most recent start was Oct. 27 at Santa Anita, where, on the same day, a 2-year-old colt by Curlin had just finished third in his career debut. That colt, Journalism, has done fairly well since and is favored Saturday in the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga.
