Butterbean is always in the mood for a trip to Prairie Meadows, where she is 3 for 3 heading into Friday night’s $100,000 Iowa Distaff.
Apparently, she’s a big fan of the Hawkeye State.
“Maybe it’s the corn,” quipped trainer Kenny McPeek.
There’s a bumper crop of stakes Friday and Saturday night during the annual Iowa Festival of Racing. The four offerings Friday are worth a total of $400,000, and the action Saturday includes the Cornhusker, Iowa Derby, and Iowa Oaks.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A competitive renewal of the Manila Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf is part of a tricky pick-six sequence that has a $138,215 carryover awaiting horseplayers Friday as Belmont Park kicks off its final three-day stretch of racing for 2023.
Previously run as a $100,000 listed stakes, the Manila was granted Grade 3 status beginning this year and received a purse bump to $250,000. The one-mile turf race was rewarded with a strong field.
Warrior‘s Pride showed both his durability and versatility Sunday at Gulfstream Park when rallying to a two-length victory in the Bob Umphrey Sprint. The speedster had captured the 2021 version of the race on grass before coming back to win the summer fixture, part of Gulfstream’s Summit of Speed weekend, over the Tapeta course two years later.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Linda Rice is on the verge of winning her first outright trainer’s title at Belmont Park.
Entering the final three days of the meet, Rice holds a 31-26 lead over Chad Brown, who has won the last seven Belmont spring meet titles. Over the final three days of the meet, Rice has runners entered in 18 of the 31 races carded while Brown has runners in eight.
It would be the fourth consecutive meet title for Rice on the New York Racing Association circuit. She won the 2022 Aqueduct fall meet, and the 2023 Aqueduct winter and spring meets.
La Popis appears to be the best wagering venture in Friday’s feature race at Emerald Downs as she has the most upside potential of any runner in the one-mile race.
Indeed there are concerns regarding La Popis in the $5,000 claiming race for fillies and mares who have not won two races. A daughter of Dads Caps, she has just one win from 15 career starts and her sire was strictly a sprinter.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There are four King’s Plate nominees in Friday’s eighth race at Woodbine, including Enjoythesilent, who should be favored under Kazushi Kimura in the nonwinners-of-two route that combines Ontario-sired allowance stock and $40,000 claimers.
Enjoythesilent was a non-threatening fifth in a maiden special turf sprint in his only 2-year-old outing last July. Coming off the sidelines in a seven-furlong maiden sprint on May 28, he closed strongly on the outside from off a slow pace to win going away by 5 1/4 lengths with a 77 Beyer Speed Figure.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Albeit for different reasons, jockeys Manny Franco and Eric Cancel will sit out the final three days of the Belmont Park spring/summer meet.
Franco will miss the Friday-through-Sunday programs owing to a careless riding suspension handed him by the stewards for his ride on Chasing the Crown in the second race on June 22. Chasing the Crown finished second, but interfered with third-place finisher Verbal. The stewards disqualified Chasing the Crown and placed him behind Verbal.
Franco’s 28 wins have him third in the Belmont jockey standings.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After giving some consideration to stretching champion female sprinter Goodnight Olive out in distance, trainer Chad Brown said the decision was made to keep her sprinting. She will be pointed to the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga on Aug. 26.
That would likely be her last start before the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Goodnight Olive won both those races last year.
“I want to make sure she’s fresh for the Breeders’ Cup,” Brown said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Owner Bruno Schickedanz and trainer Marty Drexler send out Silent Flash and Emicrack in the opening leg of the Woodbine Turf Sprint Series on Thursday, a race that was on last Friday’s canceled Woodbine card. The five-furlong inner turf dash is for older runners who raced for $25,000 or less in 2022-23, or $40,000 claimers.
