On his best day, the 4-year-old colt Luxembourg is unbeatable in major stakes in Europe, which is why he is a slight favorite to win Wednesday’s Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
The trouble is not every race day is Luxembourg’s day. He won the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes last September at Leopardstown, but was seventh in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe a month later in Paris.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Dreams and Schemes has tried nearly every scenario possible to try to earn her diploma, and perhaps the stretch-out to 1 1/16 miles against a modest group of fillies and mares in Thursday’s fifth race at Woodbine will get her the money.
A 4-year-old trained by Catherine Day Phillips, Dream and Schemes wound up third second time out at 2. She earned her keep last year while competing predominantly against $25,000 maidens.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Twenty Six Black was the workmate of Be Your Best last summer at Saratoga. While Be Your Best became a stakes winner in her second start – and was beaten just a neck in last Sunday’s Grade 2 Wonder Again – Twenty Six Black finally gets his chance to win a stakes Sunday in the $150,000 Spectacular Bid division of the New York Stallion Series at Belmont Park.
The Spectacular Bid and the co-featured Cupecoy’s Joy are for 3-year-olds and 3-year-old fillies, respectively, by New York-based stallions.
The gamble of the year in Quarter Horse racing may produce a payoff of $361,200 for Utah owner Keith Nellesen in Sunday’s $900,000 Ed Burke Futurity at Los Alamitos.
Nellesen owns Political Rivalry, the fastest qualifier for the 350-yard race from time trials on May 28.
Political Rivalry qualified for the $275,900 Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos on May 14, but was held out of that final with the hope he would qualify for the Burke.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though he wasn’t here to experience it in person, horse owner Randy Hill had a day he’ll never forget Thursday at Belmont Park, winning four races on the nine-race card.
Hill, who owns the majority of horses in partnership, won the first with Astonesthrowaway, a first-time starting 2-year-old; the second with the filly Midnight Stroll; the third with the claimer Provision; and the seventh, a second-level allowance turf sprint, with Outlaw Kid.
Trainer Jorge Duarte Jr. is an aspiring marathon runner, but on Sunday his focus will be sprint racing when he saddles Grooms All Bizness in the $100,000 Get Serious at Monmouth Park.
The stakes, to be run over five furlongs on the grass, is for 3-year-olds and up. It drew a field of nine, including That’s Right, winner of the Grade 3 Turf Monster last September at Parx Racing; Belgrano, a four-time stakes winner and a son of multiple Grade 1 winner Ask the Moon; and Our Shot, who is coming off an allowance win at Keeneland for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
Turf marathon stakes and a hearty pick six pool are the dominant themes of Sunday’s closing day of the Santa Anita meeting.
The program itself is a test of stamina, 12 races beginning at noon Pacific.
Racing begins with the $100,000 Possibly Perfect Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles on turf in the first race, followed in the fifth race by the Grade 3 San Juan Capistrano Stakes. The $100,000 San Juan Capistrano is the track’s longest stakes, at about 1 3/4 miles on turf.
Fresh off a breakthrough, course-record performance against a salty field at Churchill Downs, Bad Beat Brian faces another difficult test in Sunday’s $225,000 Mighty Beau Stakes at Ellis Park.
The 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint has drawn a deep field of 10, including graded stakes winners Nobals, Gear Jockey, and Yes I Am Free.
Caroline Krystyna was a fleet debut winner and has a chance to steal away Sunday, when she makes her first start against stakes rivals in the $100,000 Stormy Blues at Laurel Park.
The race, which is for 3-year-old fillies, is set for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. A field of eight has been entered, including Sweet Harmony, winner of the Colleen at Monmouth Park; My Sweet Affair, who was third to multiple stakes winner Love Reigns in the $208,000 Limestone at Keeneland; and Alva Starr, a main-track-only entrant and half-sister to Grade 2 winner Cilla.
Fillies and mares who have been running around the Mid-Atlantic region, in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, converge on Parx Racing’s turf course for the $75,000 PTHA President’s Cup Stakes, the feature on a 10-race Sunday card.
