OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Lady Mine figures to get the wet track on which she performs best in Sunday’s $100,000 Biogio’s Rose Stakes at Aqueduct, but her ability to get the one-mile distance is what is at question in the race for New York-bred females.
Lady Mine has won her last three starts over a wet surface, and the track figures to still be wet after an expected 1-2 inches of rain on Saturday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 3, $600,000 Essex Handicap on Saturday at Oaklawn Park drew an accomplished field, as seven of the nine entrants are stakes winners led by the 121-pound highweight First Mission.
The race, which is for 4-year-olds and up over 1 1/8 miles, shares a card with the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes. It is the final local stepping-stone to the Grade 2, $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap on April 20.
Touchuponastar, winner of seven Louisiana-bred stakes, is set to make a rare venture into open company in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds.
A 5-year-old gelding by Star Guitar, Touchuponastar has 11 wins from 14 starts, all but two of his races coming in statebred company. Though he is cross-entered in Sunday’s $100,000 Star Guitar Stakes for Louisiana-breds, trainer Jeff Delhomme said Wednesday he’s leaning toward running in the 1 1/8-mile New Orleans Classic.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Favorites have been practically automatic in the Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes the past few years, and in Santa Anita turf-route stakes the past few weeks.
The trends are likely to continue Saturday, because Missed the Cut looks formidable in the San Luis Rey. Favorites won 1 1/2-mile turf race five of the last six years, similar to the strike rate by favorites this season.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The talented Nash will attempt to nail down his first stakes win Saturday in the $200,000 Hot Springs at Oaklawn Park.
The race is for 3-year-olds at a mile. It will end at the sixteenth pole. The Hot Springs shares a card with the Grade 3, $600,000 Essex. The field of nine includes stakes winners Otto the Conqueror and Magic Grant, the talented Carbone, and the well-bred Mena.
FLORENCE, Ky. – Those using Turfway Park’s signature Kentucky Derby prep, the Grade 3, $700,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks, as their final springboard to Churchill Downs have sparkled under the twin spires in recent years. That history, plus a shot at major points toward the starting gate, has lured a full field for Saturday’s renewal on the Tapeta.
Wolfie’s Dynaghost and Botanical both won stakes on Turfway Park’s biggest annual day of racing in 2023. They’re back as that program rolls back around Saturday, with Wolfie’s Dynaghost looking to repeat in the Grade 3, $300,000 Kentucky Cup Classic for older horses, and Botanical seeking another Turfway stakes win in the $250,000 Latonia Stakes for fillies and mares.
NEW ORLEANS, La. – Intricate couldn’t come close to reeling in Tarifa last month in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes but the gap between these two talented 3-year-old fillies will narrow when they hook up again Saturday in the Fair Grounds Oaks.
Jockey Gerard Melancon will close out a 40-year riding career during which he won more than 5,000 races on Sunday’s closing-day card at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
Melancon, 56, said his final mount will come in 13th race, when he rides Good N Sassy. She will cap a journey that began Feb. 1, 1984, the date of his first mount. It was at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
“My first win came Feb. 9,” Melancon said of the milestone victory at Delta.
NEW ORLEANS – On July 12 of last year, Catching Freedom worked in company with Mozlzil and Quarrymen, the two breeze companions leaving Catching Freedom in their wake.
In August and into autumn, Catching Freedom worked regularly with a colt named Ethan Energy, who, just as regularly, spanked him in those team drills.
On Jan. 28 at Fair Grounds, Awesome Road breezed under a death grip to keep him from burying Catching Freedom, and on Feb. 3, the filly Alpine Princess absolutely dusted Catching Freedom in a serious Fair Grounds drill.
