ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There’s no stakes on Sunday’s 10-race card at Woodbine, and a conditioned allowance with a $50,000 claiming option traveling 1 1/16 miles goes as the featured ninth on the Tapeta.
Dolder Grand has been trying to clear the second allowance category since his sophomore season in 2021, during which he graduated with a 90 Beyer Speed Figure and then doubled up with an allowance win before back-to-back fourths in a pair of Grade 3 stakes.
There is one 2-year-old racing on Sunday at Emerald Downs that will stand out from the rest, and he is first-time starter Sir Argento, who will face eight others in the $50,000 King County Express Stakes over 5 1/2 furlongs.
Sir Argento happens to be one of those unique Thoroughbreds who is officially white in color. Although they are not quite as rare anymore as they were the last time one of them raced at Emerald Downs, white Thoroughbreds still automatically catch the eye.
From betting and tactical perspectives, Saturday’s Group 1 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Racecourse near London is a match race.
Four start in the $952,200 Eclipse Stakes, Britain’s leading summer race at 1 1/4 miles, but the focus is clearly on the 3-year-old Paddington and the 4-year-old filly Emily Upjohn, both winners of Group 1 races in June.
Paddington, trained by Aidan O’Brien for the Coolmore syndicate, recorded an outstanding win in the Group 1 St. James’s Palace Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on June 20 at Royal Ascot. This will be his first start at 1 1/4 miles.
The boutique meets of Saratoga and Del Mar are just around the corner, but hey, this block is pretty nice, too! Multiple stakes cards all over North America, with the focus on Long Island. Preservationist just missed this week’s cut as a front-running Belmont Oaks threat, but we have two more horses in New York and an Indiana special.
Belmont Derby
Defining Purpose is a Grade 1 winner, but Taxed is a Grade A bet to win the Grade 3, $200,000 Indiana Oaks on Saturday at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Defining Purpose scored a 20-1 upset in the Grade 1 Ashland in April at Keeneland, but for the most part failed to validate that performance, checking in ninth in the Kentucky Oaks. Defining Purpose will need something better than that to handle Taxed, a potential rising star in the 3-year-old filly dirt-route division.
Bo Cruz might look like a need-the-lead type on paper, but trainer Al Stall Jr. believes the colt is versatile and his theory could be tested Saturday night in the $250,000 Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows. The four-stakes card is topped by the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap.
The 1 1/16-mile Iowa Derby drew a number of speed horses. One in Vermillion is moving back to dirt in search of his fifth stakes win. Big Luke, Heroic Move, and West Coast Cowboy are all stretching out around two turns. Eyeing Clover was prominent throughout last time when just edged in the Texas Derby.
Trainer Jayde Gelner swept a pair of 2-year-old stakes last weekend and will attempt to keep rolling with the barn’s young prospects in Saturday night’s $70,000 colts and geldings division of the D.S. “Shine” Young Futurity at Evangeline Downs.
The 5 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds bred in Louisiana shares a card with the $100,000 Louisiana Stallion Stakes in which near-millionaire Free Like a Girl will face male rivals after the fillies and mares division did not fill for the one-mile race.
Patience has paid off for trainer Brad Cox as it pertains to Idiomatic, the 7-5 morning-line favorite in Saturday’s 86th running of the Grade 2, $500,000 Delaware Handicap. The Del Cap, for fillies and mares, has been shortened slightly this year from 1 1/4 miles to 1 3/16 miles.
A 4-year-old filly by Curlin out of stakes winner Lockdown – a full sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Close Hatches – Idiomatic raced twice during the spring of 2022 before going to the sidelines for seven months.
Verily, a graded stakes victory would vault Verifying’s value to a new level, and it will take a subpar performance to keep the colt from getting one in the Grade 3, $300,000 Indiana Derby on Saturday at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher was originally planning to train Charge It up to next month’s Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga. But Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Suburban Stakes looked too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Charge It is just one of two graded stakes winners in a five-horse Suburban field. Clapton is the other graded winner, having won the Grade 3 Ghostzapper at Gulfstream in April.
