OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There is no stakes race Sunday at Aqueduct. But several horses entered in a multi-conditioned allowance race that serves as the feature on the nine-race program could show up in a black-type event – perhaps the $150,000 Queens County on Dec. 31 – at some point this winter.

Unbridled Bomber runs like a stakes a horse – except in stakes. The last four times he’s run in allowance company, he’s won. That included a nine-length victory in a third-level allowance here in April going a one-turn mile, the same configuration as this race.

Notice of Action puts his unbeaten streak on the line in Tuesday’s $100,000 Pennsylvania Nursery for statebred juveniles traveling seven furlongs at Parx Racing.

A son of Hoppertunity trained by Bobbi Anne Hawthorne, Notice of Action earned a 79 Beyer Speed Figure when winning his debut against fellow Pennsylvania-breds on Aug. 21 at Parx.

“I thought he might need a race the first time,” Hawthorne said after the colt’s second start, a gritty half-length victory over a wet track in the restricted Prince Lucky Stakes on the Pennsylvania Derby undercard.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Palace View has been working like he’s ready to roll off the bench in time for Sunday’s seventh race at Woodbine. From the outside post 9 under Sahin Civaci, he should be dangerous in the seven-furlong Tapeta sprint, which combines nonwinners-of-two allowance types with $50,000 3-year-olds.

Nothing but scratches and turkeys in this space the last two weeks. The stakes menu this holiday weekend Saturday is somewhat light. Hopefully, we still feast.

Comely

Raging Sea did something last month at Keeneland that no horse who participated in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies had since been able to accomplish – win a race.

If memory serves, I picked Raging Sea to win the BC Juvenile Fillies off an encouraging performance in the Alcibiades Stakes. Didn’t realize I was jumping aboard roughly a year early.

Equinox, who will be a heavy favorite to win Sunday’s Grade 1 Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse, is not a perfect racehorse. He has been beaten, most recently when second in the Grade 1 Japanese Derby in 2022.

It’s what Equinox has done since then on a global basis that has left him widely considered the world’s leading runner. Equinox has won five consecutive races, a streak consisting of four victories in Grade 1 races in Japan and the Group 1 Sheema Classic in Dubai in March.

The widest winning margin on the first day of Breeders’ Cup weekend at Santa Anita earlier this month was not a high-profile 2-year-old such as Fierceness, but the California-bred Grand Slam Smile in the Golden State Juvenile Fillies.

Fierceness was brilliant in the Juvenile, winning by 6 1/4 lengths. Grand Slam Smile won by 7 1/4 lengths earlier in the day.

DEL MAR, Calif. – There are plenty of stakes races for turf horses who are just short of Breeders’ Cup-caliber, and plenty of California horses who fit the description.

The Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap is one of those races, and Hong Kong Harry is one of those horses.

Saturday at Del Mar, Hong Kong Harry will try to win the Seabiscuit a second straight year after skipping the BC Mile. Passing the BC was an easy decision, despite Hong Kong Harry’s status as one of the state’s top turf milers.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The curtain will ring down on Gulfstream Park’s 2023 summer-fall meeting on Saturday with an 11-race program highlighted by a trio of allowance races, the final two of which are restricted to statebreds. The 2023-24 Championship session opens Friday.

Not to paint with too broad a brush, but the Fair Grounds grass course for literally decades has carried a general bias toward outside closers. That dynamic did not appear to require redefinition during the first couple days of the 2023-24 racing season and makes the filly Redifined look like a strong candidate to win the $100,000 Pan Zareta Stakes on Saturday.

Awesome Road ran like a Triple Crown kind of horse winning his career debut at Ellis Park. Second time out, in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, Awesome Road ran like someone had given him a triple shot of Crown Royal.

Maybe the big win at Ellis was illusory, but perhaps that distant seventh-place finish at Keeneland makes Awesome Road a value proposition Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.