LEXINGTON, Ky. – Last year at age 3, Alva Starr, Red Carpet Ready, and Vahva were Grade 2 winners. This year, they’ll try to better that, starting when they meet in the Grade 1, $600,000 Madison Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.
The seven-furlong Madison has been won by Eclipse Award champion female sprinters Informed Decision (2009), Groupie Doll (2012), Judy the Beauty (2014), and Goodnight Olive (2023).
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Haulin Ice and Hush It Honey have emerged as Arkansas-bred fillies of significance this meet at Oaklawn Park. The pair will meet for the first time Saturday in the $150,000 Rainbow Miss.
The race shares a card with the $150,000 Rainbow that drew the promising runners Twenty to Park and Landlord. Both six-furlong stakes are restricted to 3-year-olds bred in Arkansas.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Last year, trainer Brittany Russell won her first Grade 1 stakes when Doppelganger upset the Carter Handicap at odds of 17-1, the longest price in the six-horse field.
This year, Russell may have the favorite for the seven-furlong $300,000 Carter Stakes – now run as a Grade 2 and no longer a handicap – when she sends Post Time from Maryland to face just four rivals at Aqueduct.
The 3-year-old colt Dornoch was named for the seaside town and famed golf club on the northern east coast of Scotland. The name is pronounced “DOOR-knock,” yet everyone wants to emphasize the “knock” when it comes to this horse. Despite ending his 2-year-old season with a game victory in the Grade 2 Remsen and beginning his 3-year-old campaign with a solid win in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, Dornoch enters Keeneland’s Blue Grass Stakes under a cloud of skepticism.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The best horse wins most of the time, but one school of thought is that the best horse did not win the prep race for the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes, a filly-mare hillside sprint Saturday at Santa Anita.
Ag Bullet and Gracelund Gray, one-two over the same course last out, meet again Saturday in the $100,000 Monrovia, Race 9. Eight entered the stakes, and maybe this time Gracelund Gray will have a clean trip. Or maybe, Ag Bullet is simply a better filly.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Kinza is a dangerous filly. Rivals that have attempted to run with Kinza in her brief career have failed to keep pace. When allowed to lead, Kinza pulls away.
Undefeated in three starts, Kinza will be a heavy favorite to win her third stakes in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Saturday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – First Mission has stakes options at Oaklawn and Churchill Downs after winning the Grade 3 Essex here last month with a Beyer Speed Figure of 100. He rolled by five lengths in the 1 1/8-mile race to rebound from an uncharacteristic ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational in January at Gulfstream Park.
“He got our confidence back,” said Brad Cox, who trains the homebred for Godolphin. “We always thought he was a good horse – obviously, he was a graded stakes winner already – but it definitely got our confidence back.
We may now know who the favorite is for Kentucky Derby 150. By nightfall Saturday, we should have a pretty good line on the field likely to line up against impressive Florida Derby winner Fierceness at Churchill Downs on May 4.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – West Omaha will most likely make her next start in the Grade 2, $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course, trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday.
West Omaha is coming off a runner-up finish in the Grade 2, $750,000 Fantasy at Oaklawn and ranks fourth in Kentucky Oaks points with 90. She was to have shipped Tuesday to Churchill Downs for owners Gary and Mary West.
“After talking it over with Mr. West, it looks like we’ll probably pursue the Black-Eyed Susan,” Cox said. “We’ll just see how everything plays out.”
