Midnight Current debuted on this date five years ago at Canterbury Park and would become one of the surest bets on turf in Minnesota.
But the ride ends Saturday night, as the decorated mare is scheduled to be retired following a start in the track’s $50,000 Princess Elaine, according to trainer Joel Berndt.
Gold Phoenix can claim a piece of Del Mar history Saturday by becoming the first three-time winner of the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap.
Since the race was moved from dirt to turf in 1986, Gold Phoenix and Spring House (2008-09) are the only two-time winners.
When the now 6-year-old Gold Phoenix won in 2022, he rallied wide to win by a head. Last year, Gold Phoenix fought through traffic and again rallied wide to prevail by 1 1/4 lengths.
It’s Brown versus Motion on Saturday in filly-and-mare turf routes in Kentucky and New Jersey.
Mission of Joy and Sparkle Blue for Graham Motion take on Chad Brown-trained Fluffy Socks in the Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf, and in the $100,000 Violet at Monmouth Park, Motion sends out Beach Bomb, while Brown has Maman Joon.
Seven went into the 1 1/16-mile Violet, a patchwork group that on paper should be dominated by the Motion and Brown fillies.
Does it seem like Saratoga and Del Mar, both meets winding to a close, just got started? Or that they’ve been going forever? In theoretical physics, you know, there’s no distinction between past and future. Theoretically, as well, we have three winners for you Saturday.
Ladies Turf Sprint
If rain falls at Kentucky Downs, all bets are off. The European-style grass course can quickly become a bog, and races difficult to analyze under the best circumstances become nearly random.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Approximately 30 minutes before they crown the latest winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway, the defending champion, Brightwork, will make her much anticipated and already once delayed 2024 debut in the $200,000 Prioress Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga. The six-furlong, Grade 3 Prioress lured a field of nine 3-year-old fillies that includes four other stakes winners and the very exciting prospect Two Sharp, who ran off the screen winning a maiden race here earlier this month.
Mission of Joy has spent her season competing against an army of Chad Brown-trained fillies and mares. She finished fourth in the Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs, a race in which Brown ran three. In the Just a Game at Saratoga, Mission of Joy came home a good third while facing four from the Brown barn. And in the Diana last month, a paceless race that worked against Mission of Joy, she was sixth in a Grade 1 with five Browns.
When First Peace settled behind a fast early pace in the restricted Wickerr Stakes at a mile on July 21 at Del Mar, trainer Mark Glatt saw an aspect of the 4-year-old colt missing earlier in his career.
First Peace was a patient colt, a style that led to his first stakes win that day.
The same composed effort will be necessary when First Peace starts in Saturday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf. This time, First Peace may set the pace in a field of 10 that lacks a confirmed front-runner.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Motorious returns Saturday to Del Mar, where the turf sprinter will aim for his second win in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap as the top entrant trained by Phil D’Amato.
D’Amato finished 1-3-4 in last year’s Green Flash, led by Motorious. D’Amato this year entered four of the 12 runners in the five-furlong race, a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint scheduled for Nov. 2 at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. – A strapping mare trying 1 1/4 miles for the first time, facing colts and geldings for the first time, singlehandedly transformed Del Mar’s top summer race from marginal significance to one of the most compelling stakes of the season.
Whether or not Adare Manor will win the Grade 1 Pacific Classic as the 9-5 program favorite is a matter of opinion, but the 5-year-old mare is the star on Saturday when she meets males at 1 1/4 miles for a $1 million purse.
The Pacific Classic was not on Adare Manor’s itinerary, trainer Bob Baffert acknowledged.
