SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A trio of Grade 1 winners already quite familiar with one another will square off once again with an even bigger prize on the line the second time around – an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint – when going seven furlongs Saturday at Saratoga in the $500,000 Ballerina Handicap.
Gould’s Gold has been on the cusp of stakes success multiple times this year and could be sitting on a breakthrough performance Saturday in the $200,000 Smarty Jones at Parx Racing.
The 1 1/16-mile race anchors a card that features six stakes worth a cumulative $725,000. The races could produce starters for the Pennsylvania Derby Day card on Sept. 21.
DEL MAR, Calif. – When the country’s top-ranked sprinter meets the country’s richest active racehorse on Saturday at Del Mar, the most likely winner is obvious.
The Chosen Vron seeks his seventh straight stakes victory in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien, a seven-furlong sprint in which $12.6 million earner Senor Buscador returns from a five-month layoff. The knock on The Chosen Vron is low odds, for Senor Buscador it’s the layoff and closing style.
Comedy Town will attempt to remain unbeaten on dirt Saturday when the 6-year-old makes his third start on the surface in the $100,000 Benny the Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
The seven-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up anchors an 11-race card. It drew eight, including Big Data, winner of last year’s Super Derby at Louisiana Downs; Vivir Con Alegria, a Group 2 winner in his native Chile; and Saint Tapit, who is out of Horse of the Year Havre de Grace.
It has been 36 years since native New Orleanian, attorney, horse owner, and trainer Louie Roussel came out of Louisiana with Risen Star, who might have swept the 1988 Triple Crown had he not drawn the rail and suffered an impossible trip finishing third in the Kentucky Derby before winning the Preakness and Belmont.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Gal in a Rush returns to Woodbine for another stakes engagement in Saturday’s Grade 3, $135,000 Seaway for fillies and mares.
Based at Saratoga with trainer Christophe Clement, Gal in a Rush’s first Woodbine foray of the meet in the Grade 3 Hendrie on July 6 was impressive. She was 3-1 throughout most of betting before drifting up to 6-1 when the 6 1/2-furlong sprint was being run. After trailing some six lengths off the lead on the turn under Kazushi Kimura, she mounted a wide rally to prevail with a career-high 94 Beyer Speed Figure.
Leg 3 of the Hollywood Harbor Sprint Series finds Party Foul the horse to beat over six furlongs Saturday at Emerald Downs.
The sprint series has been presented on three different dates, with only those having participated in the most recent leg eligible to race in any subsequent leg. The series commenced with two divisions July 20 with nine of those runners moving on to leg two on Aug. 3.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Idiomatic gets a chance to avenge her only loss in 13 months while Randomized gets to make her case for possibly dethroning the reigning older dirt female champion when the two square off again in Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga.
Last summer, Idiomatic dominated the Personal Ensign on the front end by four lengths for her first Grade 1 win. She added the Spinster and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff – beating Randomized by a half-length in the latter – to complete an 8-for-9 campaign that ended with an Eclipse Award.
Louie the Sun King could go favored Friday when he makes his first start against older rivals in the featured eighth race at Gulfstream Park.
A field of 10 has signed on for the first-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up bred in Florida. It will be run over 5 1/2 furlongs on Tapeta.
Louie the Sun King has stepped up his game since moving to the synthetic track. He won a $35,000 starter allowance on Tapeta in May, and has come back and run second in two subsequent starts on the surface, on June 28 and July 28.
Saffie Joseph Jr., who is the runaway leader in the trainer standings at Gulfstream with 88 wins through Tuesday, has a pair of recent maiden winners pointing for the first leg of the Florida Sire Stakes.
He said Neoequos will likely make his next start in the $100,000 Dr. Fager division for 2-year-old colts and geldings, while R Morning Brew is probable for the $100,000 Desert Vixen division for 2-year-old fillies. Both races will be run over six furlongs on Sept. 7 at Gulfstream.
