There have been plenty of blah renewals of the Risen Star Stakes. Not this year.
The 12-horse field in the season’s first 1 1/8-mile, 105-point Derby prep includes five horses from the top 20 in Daily Racing Form’s weekly Derby Watch. Atop that list sits Sierra Leone, who races for the first time since a strong performance in the Dec. 2 Remsen Stakes.
An unsettled forecast, one that calls for as much as a half-inch of rain in the New Orleans area Friday night into Saturday, is likely to impact the three scheduled turf stakes on the 14-race Fair Grounds program.
Surface is unlikely to be an issue for Strong Quality, who will be the horse to catch in the Grade 3, $175,000 Fair Grounds Stakes scheduled for 1 1/8 miles.
Strong Quality, a 5-year-old son of Quality Road trained by Mark Casse, is coming off a front-running score in the Colonel Bradley on Jan. 20 at Fair Grounds, where he held off Beatbox by a head.
Post Time was impressive in his seasonal debut, taking the Jan. 28 restricted Jennings Stakes at Laurel. The 4-year-old Frosted colt looks for his first graded victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 General George for 4-year-olds and up at seven furlongs.
The Maryland-bred juvenile champion of 2022, Post Time has won 6 of 7 starts, with the lone defeat coming in Keeneland’s Perryville last fall, his only start outside of his home state. He rallied from last to first over a sealed, sloppy track in the Jennings to earn a career-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure.
For a wintertime 3-year-old, Bp Cartel Policy has already had three seasons in his career.
Last June, he was fifth in the $1.2 million Heritage Place Futurity at Remington Park, his final start before a winless four-race stretch at Ruidoso Downs and Los Alamitos in the summer and fall.
Bp Cartel Policy was gelded last fall and returned from a nine-week layoff to win a division of the Jan. 27 Los Alamitos Winter Derby trials and set the fastest qualifying time for Saturday’s $174,200 final at 400 yards.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Those looking to play Tanya Showers in the $150,000 Dixie Belle on Saturday at Oaklawn Park might want to be more concerned with the pace forecast for the race than the weather forecast.
Tanya Showers should see clear skies, but even if the anticipated sunshine turns to rain on what has been a wet winter, that would be fine for the 3-year-old filly named for the weather forecaster on the television series “The Ranch.” Tanya Showers has been effective on both fast and wet tracks.
“She does travel on either surface,” trainer Chris Hartman said.
The Mineshaft Stakes has gotten the screws put to it. The Grade 1, $500,000 Santa Anita Handicap comes March 2. The $3 million Pegasus World Cup was Jan. 27. And the Saudi Cup, worth $20 million, is attracting an increasing number of American horses from a shallow older horse dirt-route division.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Out-of-towners Halina’s Forte and Ghalia Princess add some spice to Saturday’s $100,000 Ruthless Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.
The Ruthless, at seven furlongs, shares top billing on Saturday’s 10-race card with the $100,000 Broadway for New York-bred fillies and mares also at seven furlongs. First post Saturday is 12:20 p.m.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. will combine quantity and quality when sending out four of the 11 potential starters, including Grade 3 winner Honor D Lady, in Saturday’s $150,000 Royal Delta Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Grade 3 fixture will be decided at 1 1/16 miles and goes as the 11th event on a 12-race card that begins at 12:10 a.m.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Even if the $100,000 Baffle Stakes is merely a prep for Stay Hot, that does not preclude the best horse in the field from winning the downhill sprint Saturday at Santa Anita.
Still, trainer Peter Eurton acknowledged the Baffle is a means to an end. Stay Hot runs Saturday for the first time since he won a Grade 3 turf mile at Del Mar in December. The Baffle, a turf sprint in mid-February, is an ideal tune-up for a turf route in March.
Calling the Rachel Alexandra Stakes a “Kentucky Oaks prep” is more than verbiage. Five times in the last 10 years, the Oaks winner ran in the Rachel Alexandra, and given the relatively barren divisional landscape this year, there’s a solid chance it happens again.
Among seven entrants Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra, five fillies appear plausible Oaks players. Brad Cox trains three of them – Alpine Princess, West Omaha, and Tarifa.
