Go strictly by the numbers and you might not like Coastal Mission to win the $175,000 Toboggan Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct. Go by the names, however, and he stands a great chance.
Coastal Mission posted a modest 91 Beyer Speed Figure in his most recent start, a number seemingly too low to win the Toboggan. Yet that number came from Coastal Mission’s creditable fourth-place finish in the Cigar Mile, a Grade 2 race loaded with Grade 1 horses.
Touchuponastar will bring the new title of millionaire into Saturday night’s $150,000 Louisiana Premier Championship at Delta Downs.
The race is the richest of six divisional stakes for Louisiana-breds on an 11-race card that begins at 4:50 p.m. Central.
Touchuponastar won the Louisiana Champions Day Classic on Dec. 14 at Fair Grounds and with the victory hit the seven-figure mark in career earnings.
See You Around and Ocean Club both scratched out of last Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park hoping to find an easier spot in this Saturday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Endeavour Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
While it may be easier, the Endeavour is not easy.
A field of 10 was entered for the 1 1/16-mile Endeavour, which along with the Grade 3, $175,000 Tampa Bay Stakes, highlight a 10-race card that begins at 12:15 p.m.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sitting in his office at the Palm Meadows training center earlier this week, trainer Graham Motion was reading the chart of last November’s Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes at Del Mar in which his horse, Test Score, finished second.
“Raced three deep in midpack early, bumped with inner rival at the three-eighths pole, bumped again at the five-sixteenths pole, remained three wide in the stretch, moved in, then back out,” Motion recited.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The $150,000 American Beauty at Oaklawn Park is a race that has been known to go through the barn of Steve Asmussen. On Saturday, the trainer will be looking to win it for a sixth time when he saddles Benedetta.
She’s part of a field of seven that includes Grade 2 winner Taxed, who is making a rare start at one turn in the six-furlong race for fillies and mares, and the capable Chris Hartman-trained duo of Fibber and Tanya Showers.
Air Force Red will set the pace in Saturday’s Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at one mile on turf at Santa Anita. Trainer Leonard Powell was adamant on Thursday that such an approach was the best strategy for Air Force Red.
“Some others have speed, but not our kind of speed,” Powell said. “I think people know if they go with us it would be a lose-lose for them.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Despite winning a pair of stakes during her 2-year-old campaign at Saratoga, there will be a degree of uncertainty when The Queens M G kicks off her 3-year-old season as the likely favorite Saturday at Gulfstream in the $165,000 Forward Gal.
The Grade 3 fixture for 3-year-old fillies will be decided at seven furlongs and offers 42 qualifying points, to be awarded on a 20-10-6-4-2 basis, for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 2.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There is no questioning the talent level Ferocious and Guns Loaded have shown to this point in their young careers, although both have questions to answer as the likely favorites Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the $265,000 Holy Bull Stakes.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It’s always exciting when a champion 2-year-old returns for his first start at age 3, but Eclipse Award winner Citizen Bull is no walkover Saturday at Santa Anita.
There is one virtual certainty, however: Trainer Bob Baffert is likely to score his seventh straight victory in the one-mile, Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis. It helps to have the best horses, as well as the most horses, and Baffert starts three: Citizen Bull, maiden route winner Rodriguez, and maiden sprint winner Madaket Road.
