Henry Longfellow, 3 for 3 as a 2-year-old, is one of 13 entered in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains, the French 2000 Guineas, a one-turn, one-mile contest Sunday at Longchamp.
The likely favorite figures to perform better in this Guineas race than his Aidan O’Brien-trained stablemate, City of Troy, who finished ninth May 4 as the odds-on choice in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Pipsy, coming off two solid wins in Ireland, makes her U.S. debut and first start for trainer William Walden in Sunday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Soaring Softly Stakes scheduled for six furlongs over Aqueduct’s outer turf course.
An overflow field of 13 for turf and one main-track-only filly was entered for the Soaring Softly, a race that would be limited to 10 starters on turf. Trainer Wesley Ward said Friday that Baraye will scratch from the race, which allows the also-eligible Caress to draw into the field.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are three $61,000 allowance events on Sunday’s nine race card at Gulfstream Park, the most compelling of which is the first of the trio, a five-furlong turf dash for 3-year-old fillies that features Tiffany Gold, an impressive debut winner over the Tapeta strip.
Muth and Imagination, potentially the top two betting favorites for the $2 million Preakness Stakes on May 18, put in their final workouts for the race Friday at Santa Anita going six furlongs in company in 1:11.80, according to the Santa Anita clockers.
Bob Baffert, the trainer of both horses, said the two were basically together from the time the work began at the five-furlong pole. The two horses also worked together last Saturday, covering the same distance in 1:11.40.
The 4-year-old filly Occult never has raced against older horses and hasn’t raced at all since Oct. 28, but seems destined for odds-on favoritism Sunday at Monmouth Park in the $100,000 Serena’s Song Stakes.
That’s probably merited. Occult lacks Grade 1 credentials but has the makings of a solid Grade 2-type horse in the older filly and mare middle-distance dirt division. She faces seven foes in the Serena’s Song, a one mile and 70-yard contest, and to be honest, her rivals are a ragtag bunch.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Only four starters in a weekend stakes race at Santa Anita is not as bad as it looks. It is worse.
High-figure maiden winner Ball Don’t Lie and stakes-placed Tapalo run Sunday in the $100,000 Lazaro Barrera Stakes, a sprint for 3-year-olds that is barely hanging on. The 2023 race had four runners; the 2022 edition was canceled due to insufficient entries; the 2021 Barrera had four runners.
For a 2-year-old with one start, My Budd is “pretty high spirited,” according to trainer Heath Taylor.
Maybe a bit too much so.
“He’s not a kid’s horse,” Taylor told Los Alamitos publicity last month. “He’s a handful.”
My Budd is also brilliantly fast, and may go favored in Sunday’s $256,200 Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity for 2-year-olds. The Kindergarten, run at 300 yards, is the season’s first futurity at Los Alamitos.
A deserved first Grade 1 now behind her, the 4-year-old filly Vahva has two more of them as long-term goals for 2024.
Winner of the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks and the Grade 2 Raven Run to cap her 2023 campaign, Vahva made her first start of this year in the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland, where she closed steadily but fell short of catching victorious Alva Starr. On May 4 in the seven-furlong, Grade 1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs, Alva Starr couldn’t come close to containing Vahva, who cruised to a two-length victory that yielded a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There are several racing fit Florida shippers in Sunday’s headliner, including Read On and Fighter in the Win, who are both making their Woodbine bow in the first-level allowance route with a $32,000 claiming option.
