The decision was left to jockey Juan Hernandez.
Pick a mount for Sunday’s Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita – the stakes-placed Splendora, or her improving stablemate Seismic Beauty. Both are trained by Bob Baffert.
“It was a tough choice for him there,” Baffert said. “I usually make the choices for him.”
Hernandez selected Splendora, who will be favored in the $200,000 Santa Margarita Stakes, the third race on Sunday’s 10-race program.
Final-time speed figures that can’t account for pace sometimes don’t work so well in turf races, which can unfold at a tempo so slow that no matter how fast a horse finishes, the final time and, thus, the figure, will suffer.
Mission of Joy won a high-end allowance race on April 25 at Churchill Downs by one length. The 86 Beyer Speed Figure that performance produced lands somewhere around first-level allowance class on a major circuit, a far cry from the high 90s Mission of Joy has hit on several occasions, including twice last summer.
Based strictly on numbers, Fun Money is the class of Sunday’s featured eighth race at Emerald Downs, a $24,000 allowance at 5 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares.
Stakes-placed at Santa Anita as a 2-year-old, Fun Money, now 5, has found the winner’s circle just once in 12 career starts, but she’s finished second five times and third four times to amass $169,290 in earnings. That’s by far the highest number in this seven-horse field, as is Fun Money’s career-best 79 Beyer Speed Figure.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The unbeaten speedball Frac Dancer makes his 4-year-old debut off an extended layoff in Sunday’s Woodbine headliner, a six-furlong conditioned allowance. He is clearly the one to catch in race 9, which has a $50,000 claiming option.
Frac Dancer beat maidens comfortably with a 70 Beyer Speed Figure when debuting here in October of 2023. Later that fall, he doubled up in the restricted Clarendon Stakes going six furlongs while earning an 82 Beyer.
The consistent Epic Ride turned in one of his strongest career performances when second in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint to Booth, who continued a win streak that has him among the division’s leaders. Despite his strong effort on the Pimlico dirt, trainer John Ennis is likely going to pursue his long-stated wish to put Epic Ride on turf this summer.
Mountain Bear has been his own worst enemy at times, but despite some pre-race antics, his two trips to the United States have resulted in placings in Grade 1 races. Now based in the U.S. for new connections, Mountain Bear faces softer company, and perhaps an easier atmosphere, in Sunday’s ninth race at Churchill Downs.
The $134,000 allowance race on turf is for 3-year-olds and up who have never won twice other-than, who have never won three races, or those entered for an $80,000 claiming tag.
The best racing of Memorial Day weekend comes on Memorial Day itself, and North America has zero graded stakes Saturday. Most of Saturday’s better races come on turf, which is where we’re headed.
Paradise Creek
We can leave for another day trying to answer the question of why a turf sprint for 3-year-olds bears the name of a 1 1/4-mile grass horse.
Three Paradise Creek entrants cut back from route races considerably shorter than 1 1/4 miles to this six-furlong dash, and while Clock Tower is not for me, the other two merit mention.
Todd Pletcher was among the trainers dodging rain drops Thursday while trying to figure out his best strategy for breezing the Met Mile-bound Fierceness. Pletcher ultimately sent him out about 15 minutes after White Abarrio worked a quick five furlongs on the main track, albeit over the back-raked Oklahoma training track.
Dilger will be looking to nail down his first stakes win Saturday when he starts as the 123-pound highweight in the $75,000 Big Drama Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
The seven-furlong race is for 3-year-olds and up. The field of seven includes Shaq Diesel and Pure Class for trainer David Fawkes, who trained champion sprinter Big Drama.
Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. saddles Dilger, who enters the Big Drama off a third-place finish in the Grade 2 Carter at seven furlongs April 5 at Aqueduct. There, he equaled his best Beyer Speed Figure, a 93.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. drove approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes from Long Island to Saratoga on Wednesday afternoon to spend 58.50 seconds working White Abarrio five furlongs the following morning for his upcoming start in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. And from the looks of the work, all that time on the road was well spent.
