OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Flying Connection has certainly done her fair share of traveling throughout her career, racking up stakes wins across the Southwest and acquitting herself quite well in Grade 1 stakes in Arkansas and Kentucky.
Saturday, Flying Connection makes a stop in New York with the goal of attaining her first graded stakes win and perhaps auditioning for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint when she starts in the Grade 2, $200,000 Bed o’ Roses Stakes going seven furlongs at Aqueduct.
In her 14-race career, which includes four stakes wins and seven overall victories, Chancery Way is unbeaten in one aspect of her career – she has never lost on the California fair circuit.
Chancery Way has won three races in as many starts at fair meetings at Pleasanton and Sacramento since her career began in 2022. The streak is in jeopardy when Chancery Way starts in Saturday’s $75,000 Mary Clare Schmitt Pleasanton Oaks for fillies and mares at six furlongs at the Alameda County Fair.
Our Pretty Woman, who looked like a progressive sort heading into the Kentucky Oaks, faces Intricate, trying to reset her campaign after missing the Oaks, in the $175,000 Monomoy Girl Stakes on Saturday night at Churchill Downs.
The Monomoy Girl, for sophomore fillies, and the $175,000 Chorleywood Stakes, a route for older horses on the turf, are the co-features on the final night racing program Churchill will conduct this meet. First post for the 10-race card is 6 p.m.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A class drop and beneficial pace scenario will drive down the price on front-runner Linda’s Gift in the $100,000 Possibly Perfect Stakes for grass fillies and mares Saturday at Santa Anita.
Six are entered in the Possibly Perfect, 1 1/4-mile race that marks a return to favorable conditions for Linda’s Gift. After three successive long-distance stakes wins, trainer Richard Mandella took a shot and ran her 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 1 Gamely.
“It wasn’t her best race, but it wasn’t bad,” Mandella said.
Three-year-olds will take center stage at Hastings for a Saturday stakes doubleheader comprised of the River Rock Casino for fillies and the open Ross McLeod. Both races are at 6 1/2 furlongs and have a purse of $50,000.
The Ross McLeod features a pair of 2023 stakes winners in Wealthy Texan, trained by Mel Snow, and August Rain, from the stable of Barbara Heads.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Saratoga Vision drops out of Grade 3 stakes company to contest a conditioned allowance with a $50,000 claiming option on Saturday. The erratic stretch-runner could find the mark in the seven-furlong main-turf sprint if she simply fires one of her better shots.
Owned and trained by Alex Patykewich, Saratoga Vision’s career highlight was arguably a close second at 84-1 in the Grade 3 Selene while still a maiden in 2020. In 2022, she scored twice in allowance company on different surfaces.
This season’s stakes activity at Emerald Downs begins Saturday when the $50,000 Seattle Stakes will bring out last year’s local divisional champion Appeal Factor to face eight other 3-year-old fillies over six furlongs.
The David Martinez trainee went 2 for 2 during her juvenile campaign, scoring a pair of impressive stakes wins and honors as the top juvenile filly at Emerald Downs. Silvio Amador retains the mount aboard Appeal Factor.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Drake’s Passage earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure for the third straight race following his four-length victory in Sunday’s Commentator Stakes at Saratoga.
Trainer Christophe Clement has a bevy of options for Drake’s Passage’s next start, including the $125,000 Evan Shipman Stakes for New York-breds at Saratoga on Aug 9. Should Clement want to try open company, options include the $175,000 Battery Park Stakes at Delaware Park on July 7 and the Grade 3, $400,000 Monmouth Cup on July 20.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Next, who had been mentioned as possible for last weekend’s Grade 2 Suburban Stakes, is being pointed to the Grade 2, $200,000 Brooklyn at 1 3/8 miles at Aqueduct on July 5, trainer Doug Cowans said.
Cowans said he kept Next out of the Suburban because “I was very worried about the pace scenario. I felt the Brooklyn was the better spot. The longer the better for this horse.”
