In an effort to get his 2024 campaign back on track, Integration is getting back to his roots.
Integration debuted last August at Colonial Downs, won nicely, and came right back with a sharp score over heavily favored Program Trading in the Virginia Derby. Perfect in two starts at Colonial as a 3-year-old, Integration will be heavily favored to win for the first time at age 4 while facing no more than four foes Saturday in the $125,000 Million Preview Stakes at Colonial.
Midnight Current is building a résumé that could one day land her in the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame.
The multiple stakes winner is 9 for 13 over the local turf course and on Saturday night will attempt to win the track’s Minnesota Turf Distaff for the third consecutive year.
The race is one of five $40,000 overnight stakes – four are restricted to Minnesota-breds – on a card that will celebrate the track’s newest hall of fame members: Hot Shot Kid and breeders Cheryl Sprick and Richard Bremer.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Carl Spackler had his connections and horseplayers talking to themselves when he finished fifth as the favorite in the Grade 3 Poker Stakes here last month.
Saturday, Carl Spackler will try to rebound from that non-effort when he takes on just four rivals in the Grade 3, $175,000 Kelso Stakes, scheduled for one mile on the inner turf.
The 2-year-old season has begun in earnest, the racing world year after year cycling ever onward, bouncy juveniles carrying their humans’ grand visions of Breeders’ Cups, 3-year-old classics. The hopes here go no further than Saturday stakes.
Didia could have gotten a solid call in the Diana, but her price drops from the ridiculously high one in the Grade 1 New York, and while she can win without a perfect trip, Didia did get one last month.
Sanford
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After setting a track record in his debut, it would seem there is little room for improvement for Mentee when he returns to face seven rivals Saturday at Saratoga in the Grade 3, $175,000 Sanford Stakes.
But contrary to that belief, trainer Todd Pletcher feels the full brother to reigning juvenile champion Fierceness might be primed for an even better effort going postward as the heavy favorite in the first of three graded stakes for 2-year-olds to be decided here this summer. The series culminates with the prestigious Grade 1 Hopeful on Sept. 2.
R Harper Rose is back home at Gulfstream Park on Saturday to start as the most accomplished member of the field in the $95,000 Azalea, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies.
R Harper Rose is a Grade 3 winner at the distance and overall is 4 for 6 at Gulfstream. She is part of a field of seven in the Azalea on an 11-race card. The group also includes Miuccia, Haulin Ice, and Marshmallow Queen, all capable runners who finished a respective first through third in last month’s $75,000 Game Face.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Miss Speedy will try to win the $100,000 Ballade Stakes for the second year in a row on Saturday at Woodbine, when the first 2-year-old stakes of the meet, the $125,000 My Dear, also will be run on an appealing 10-race card.
Trained by Mark Casse for owner Gary Barber, Miss Speedy has started three times on turf since returning from an extended layoff March 31 at Gulfstream. She won a conditioned allowance that day before an eighth-place finish behind Ova Charged in the Grade 3 Unbridled Sidney at Churchill.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse is probably going to win the 165th running of the $1 million King’s Plate, North America’s oldest annually run stakes, on Aug. 17 at Woodbine. The question is which one of his star 3-year-olds will prevail in the 1 1/4-mile Tapeta route for Canadian-breds?
