Mount Doom will attempt to win his fourth stakes race in a 10-week span when he goes off a heavy favorite in Saturday’s $50,000 Glen Todd Ascot Graduation over 1 1/16 miles at Hastings.
Sharing top billing on the card is the $50,000 Glen Todd Fantasy Stakes over the same distance, where Someday Lady will try to solidify herself at the head of the class of the local juvenile fillies.
Officially, Empressum beat Jeriko twice in major stakes for older Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos during the summer.
One outcome was determined by the stewards, however, leading to a fascinating third meeting of the stablemates in Saturday’s $90,000 Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship.
Empressum beat Jeriko by three-quarters of a length in the Vessels Maturity at 400 yards on July 7. In the Go Man Go Handicap at 400 yards on Aug. 25, Jeriko won by a nose over Empressum but was disqualified and placed last of seven for lugging out and causing interference.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It would certainly be fitting if Ontario wins Saturday’s $125,000 Ontario Damsel Stakes at Woodbine, and the lightly raced chestnut has the potential to get the job done in the 1 1/16-mile route for 3-year-old fillies.
After getting away slowly, Ontario mounted a powerful wide rally from eighth to win her 6 1/2-furlong debut going away July 7. Off that eye-catching performance, she was favored in the 1 1/16-mile Bison City Stakes for Canadian-breds on Aug. 10, in which she finished a distant fifth after being checked while squeezed back early.
Free Like a Girl will help the Delta Downs racing season get off to a rousing start when the all-time richest Louisiana-bred makes an appearance in Friday night’s $100,000 Magnolia Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs.
The Magnolia is one of four Louisiana-bred stakes on the card, each worth $100,000 and run at seven furlongs, which is a two-turn configuration at Delta.
Delta is racing through Feb. 22, with a new, earlier post time of 4:50 p.m. Central. Patrons returning for opening weekend will find a new winner’s circle and an updated paddock.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – As the first foal out of the champion female sprinter Covfefe, expectations were naturally high for Ellen Jay, whose name mirrors the moniker of her owners, the LNJ Foxwoods Stables of Larry, Nanci, and Jaime Roth.
After two disappointing efforts on dirt, Ellen Jay has realized those expectations on turf, winning two straight turf sprints at Ellis Park this summer. Friday, Ellen Jay makes her stakes debut in the $150,000 Glen Cove Stakes for 3-year-old fillies scheduled for six furlongs over Aqueduct’s outer turf course.
A year older and wider, Bold Act on Friday at Keeneland tries to win the Sycamore Stakes for the second year in a row.
Bold Act broke from post 3 under Jamie Spencer before winding his way through traffic and capturing the 2023 Sycamore in his North American debut. Now 4, Bold Act has gone 3-0-0-2 in three North American stakes this year – losing twice as an odds-on favorite – and this time will break from post 11 under Luis Saez in the Grade 3, $300,000 Sycamore.
A year ago at this time, trainer Todd Pletcher wasn’t sure what to make of Fierceness.
After a dominant debut win at Saratoga, Fierceness flopped in the slop of the Grade 1 Champagne at Aqueduct, dimming his Breeders’ Cup prospects. Finding nothing wrong with Fierceness out of the race, Pletcher shipped him to Keeneland to train. If he trained well enough, then Pletcher would give the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile a shot.
Greg Tramontin recently turned his attention to purchasing quality racing prospects out of the yearling market and has come up with Quickick, the runner-up in last weekend’s Alcibiades at Keeneland who is now possible for the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Quickick, trained by Tom Amoss, is a daughter of McKinzie and the Grade 3-winning mare Graeme Six. She was a $550,000 purchase last year at the Keeneland September sale.
Divisional races in California, Kentucky, and France this past weekend failed to bring into focus the complexion of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. While they didn’t establish a pecking order, the North American races at least provided a stronger sense of who figures to participate, something that can’t be said of the European front.
