You Go Girl, who is in career-best form at age 7, is the one to beat in Sunday’s six-furlong allowance feature at Emerald Downs.
The mare, owned by Ron and Nina Hagen and trainer Steve Bullock, raced exclusively at Emerald through the end of her 6-year-old season. Earlier this year, she raced four times on the Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields, winning twice and earning career-best Beyer Speed Figures in all but her most recent start on April 13.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse sends out the prime King’s Plate prospects My Boy Prince and Midnight Mascot in Sunday’s $100,000 King Corrie, a seven-furlong stakes for 3-year-olds at Woodbine.
My Boy Prince garnered the 2023 Sovereign Award for champion male 2-year-old in a landslide vote, and justifiably so. The son of Cairo Prince won three of six starts, including blowout scores in the Cup and Saucer and Simcoe stakes, to go along with a second in the Grade 1 Summer.
TIMONIUM, Md. – The list of recent graduates of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-year-olds in training sale reads like a who’s who of major events – and one doesn’t have to look far to find a classic winner.
“If you look at the catalog this year, the cover horse is Mage,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “If that doesn’t inspire confidence, if that doesn’t make you feel confident to go buy a horse that performs well on the racetrack, I don’t know what would.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Okiro is a bit of a racing oddity. In the morning he can rip off 33-and-change three-furlong works like breaking sticks. But in the afternoon, he’s capable of rationing all that speed and rallying from off the pace like he did to upset the Animal Kingdom Stakes over the synthetic surface at Turfway Park earlier this spring.
Leave No Trace has a license to be a formidable player in the older filly and mare sprint ranks, and she gets her first shot at the division Saturday in the Grade 3, $175,000 Vagrancy at the Belmont meet at Aqueduct.
The race will be run over 6 1/2 furlongs. The field of six also includes Hot Fudge, who is seeking to start a new win streak after putting together five straight victories from June 2023 to March 2024, and Big Pond, a fresh face from Southern California.
BALTIMORE – It has been more than a year since Fluffy Socks saw the winner’s circle. It’s been even longer since she saw the Pimlico turf course, winning here in 2020. Perhaps a return will help her break back on through, as the well-traveled mare, who rarely misses a dance, returns to Baltimore for the Grade 3, $100,000 Gallorette Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf Saturday afternoon.
BALTIMORE – From hunter to hunter to hunted.
Despite his narrow victory at 18-1 in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, Mystik Dan was likely going to play the underdog role again in Saturday’s 149th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. That all changed Wednesday morning, when news broke that Muth, who had beaten Mystik Dan seven weeks ago in the Arkansas Derby but was not permitted to run in the Kentucky Derby, had to scratch from the Preakness due to illness.
BALTIMORE – His penchant for running second notwithstanding, Bourbon Bash could be well-spotted to finally break through and win his first stakes race in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Maryland Sprint Stakes at Pimlico.
Drawn on the outside in a field of seven, Bourbon Bash appears to have plenty of pace to close into as his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, seeks his fifth victory in this race, and first since 2012.
“I like the outside when you’re going six furlongs, especially if there’s a lot of speed,” Lukas said. “He’s pretty good right now.”
BALTIMORE – Mr Skylight won a first-level allowance race at Keeneland on the front end last month, but it may be the off-the-pace style he used to win his maiden two starts back that will serve him best in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Chick Lang Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters at Pimlico.
BALTIMORE – A class drop should suit Emmanuel, the 5-2 morning-line favorite in Pimlico’s Grade 3, $500,000 Dinner Party Stakes for 3-year-olds and up racing 1 1/8 miles on turf.
As of Wednesday evening, however, the National Weather Service was calling for a 90 percent chance of rain on Saturday, and that might damper enthusiasm from taking too short a price on Emmanuel, who finished fifth of sixth in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile, contested over yielding turf on April 12 at Keeneland.
