ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It’s appropriate that a photo of 2023 King’s Plate winner Paramount Prince fronts the catalog for the 2024 Canadian Premier yearling sale, since he’s among the most accomplished graduates of the auction. His 2-year-old half-sister, Souper Supreme, will try to notch her first stakes in the $250,000 Muskoka, one of four Tapeta stakes for graduates of Canadian yearling sales on Sunday’s Woodbine card.
Precise Timing looks to maintain her unblemished record in the $50,000 Washington Cup Juvenile Fillies over 6 1/2 furlongs on Sunday at Emerald Downs. The daughter of Dialed In will face just four statebred foes as she looks to make it 3 for 3 in stakes company.
Awesome Road should get a tighter track in the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby at Century Mile than he encountered in his most recent start and it could help him nail down his first stakes win Saturday.
The Canadian Derby is the richest of four stakes on a 13-race card. It will be run over 1 1/4 miles and is being supported by the $100,000 Century Casino Oaks, the $100,000 Speed to Spare Championship, and the $75,000 Northlands Distaff Handicap.
This whole space could be taken up with Saratoga races on a great Travers card.
Second choice Measured Time should have his way with morning-line favorite Silver Knott in the Sword Dancer.
In the Ballerina Handicap, Scylla ought to get more than two pounds from Vahva but still holds appeal turning back from routes.
The Allen Jerkens? Eight of them (including 30-1 sleeper Reynolds Channel) merit consideration.
Travers
A fascinating race. I have a hard time ruling out with conviction anyone except Corporate Power.
Trainer Kenny McPeek will attack a competitive renewal of the $200,000 Cathryn Sophia on Saturday at Parx Racing when he sends out a seasoned stakes winner in Band of Gold and an up-and-coming runner in Wonder Ride.
The fillies are part of a field of eight that includes Gun Song, winner of the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan; Impel, who was second last out in the Grade 3 Indiana Oaks; Just Be Quiet, runner-up in the Iowa Oaks; and Courbe, who comes off a stakes-placing at Saratoga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Depending on your point of view, Sierra Leone has been unlucky or an underachiever.
A 3-year-old campaign that began with such promise, with victories in the Risen Star and Blue Grass has stalled some with narrow defeats in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, and Jim Dandy. His late-running style and tendency to lug in has cost him in those three defeats that have come by a combined 2 1/2 lengths.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tough. Competitive. Deep. Salty. Those are some of the words trainers with key contenders in the lineup are using to describe the outstanding field assembled for Saturday’s $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial at Saratoga. And those adjectives may still not be doing the race justice.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The sensational summer in the United States enjoyed by trainer Charlie Appleby and Godolphin Racing is likely to include one more Grade 1 stakes victory in Saratoga when the potent team sends out Measured Time and Silver Knott in Saturday’s $750,000 Sword Dancer Stakes.
In the United States, Appleby and Godolphin have won 12 graded turf stakes with eight horses so far in 2024. It’d be hard to argue any performance was more impressive than Measured Time’s two-length victory in the Grade 1 Manhattan here June 8.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Cagliostro and Mullikin were average 3-year-olds. Both have come back as better, stronger 4-year-olds, each accomplishing stakes success earlier this summer.
Saturday, both horses are key contenders in a wide-open renewal of the Grade 1, $500,000 Forego Stakes going seven furlongs at Saratoga.
Cagliostro went 1 for 7 as a 3-year-old with graded stakes placings at Horseshoe Indianapolis and Parx. Following a fifth-place in the Oklahoma Derby last September, Cagliostro was given the remainder of the year off.
The connections of Social Fortress were ready to roll Aug. 18, when the $200,000 Sorority Stakes was supposed to have been held at Monmouth Park, but the race failed to attract sufficient entrants to be carded. So did the Sapling Stakes, on the Monmouth schedule for Saturday. Instead, the Sorority came back as the Saturday feature, and Social Fortress, six days later than intended, gets her chance to start her career with two wins.
