The last time Geaux Rocket Ride and Skinner met they were second and third in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 4 at Santa Anita, performances that rightfully left high hopes for the spring.

Geaux Rocket Ride and Skinner never made it to the Kentucky Derby because of illnesses. Instead, the focus is on summer campaigns, beginning with Sunday’s Affirmed Stakes at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.

If they run as expected on Sunday, Geaux Rocket Ride and Skinner could be part of the national scene in major stakes for 3-year-olds in coming months.

Zippin Sevenz, winner of last year’s Emerald Distaff, will make her seasonal bow in Sunday’s conditioned allowance feature over 5 1/2 furlongs at Emerald Downs.

The biggest local race of the 2022 season for the filly and mare set was the $75,000 Emerald Distaff, and longshot Zippin Sevenz led gate to wire in the 1 1/16-mile event. The 5-year-old daughter of Coast Guard will face five others Sunday and has been working smartly all spring at Emerald Downs. She looks ready after a lively five furlongs clocked in 59.80 seconds on May 19.

West Coast Cowboy finished third in the Grade 3 Holy Bull in his stakes and 3-year-old debut this past winter but has been idle since finishing a distant seventh in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 1. He will try to earn his way back into graded stakes company when taking on five rivals, including stablemate Centrodelantero, in the first of two allowance races to be decided Sunday at Gulfstream Park.

There will be mandatory payouts in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, $1 Jackpot Super High 5, and 50-cent late pick five on Sunday’s closing-day program at Pimlico.

Although the Rainbow 6 was hit Saturday for $547,686, the Super High 5 carryover will be $490,727.

The Rainbow 6 has a 20 percent takeout and begins with Sunday’s third race. The Jackpot Super High 5 (15 percent takeout) will be paid out in the sixth race, while the late pick five (12 percent takeout) starts in the fourth.

Race 3

Defending winner Gam’s Mission looks for her third graded stakes victory on the Churchill Downs turf in Sunday’s renewal of the Grade 3, $225,000 Mint Julep Stakes for fillies and mares.

Gam’s Mission, a Lazy F Ranch homebred trained by Cherie DeVaux, has three wins from four starts overall on the Churchill turf; her only loss came when second on debut in September 2020 to Aunt Pearl, who went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Gam’s Mission won a local allowance and the Grade 3 Regret in 2021.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sovereign Award finalist War Bomber is one of several contenders starting for the first time this year in Sunday’s Grade 2, $175,000 Eclipse, one of two stakes on the Woodbine card, along with the $100,000 Pink Lloyd.

A $25,000 claim by trainer Norm McKnight in 2021, War Bomber won the 2021 Toronto Cup and last year’s Grade 3 Seagram Cup. He barely lost the Grade 2 Autumn in November to Who’s the Star, who also beat him out in the 2022 Sovereign Award voting for champion older male on the main track.

There’s plenty to say about the three races under discussion this week. I’m going to get right to saying it.

Summertime Oaks

There are only seven entered, but the race is much more interesting than I anticipated – and playable too, if like me you want to beat The Alys Look.

Bango, a 10-time winner at Churchill Downs, will attempt to tie the mark as the winningest horse in this track’s recorded history in Saturday’s $225,000 Aristides Stakes. Standing in his way will be Grade/Group 1 winners Sibelius and Gunite, both coming off strong performances in the Middle East.

The Maryland-based trainer Graham Motion has won but three Churchill Downs grass stakes from 27 starters over the last five years and is winless with 14 runners since Sharing captured the Edgewood Stakes in September 2020. But Motion has two strong chances in the three Churchill turf stakes on Saturday.

His cause – as with everyone who has a horse in the three races – is aided by short fields: Just 20 horses are entered in the trio of stakes, the Regret for 3-year-old fillies (race 5), the Audubon for 3-year-olds (race 7), and the Arlington for older horses (race 9).

The pace should be honest when seven 3-year-old Florida-bred fillies square off at 5 1/2 furlongs over the Tapeta strip under allowance and optional-claiming conditions in Saturday’s modest $43,000 main event at Gulfstream Park.

The 11-race program also features a promising looking field of 2-year-old maidens who will go five furlongs over the main track in the afternoon’s second event.