It’s a steep drop from Derby Day to the week after Derby Day, with just five graded stakes, four of them Grade 3s, carded throughout North America. I wanted to get involved in the Grade 1 Man o’ War, top race of the weekend, but couldn’t get past Warren Point, a likely underlay for Godolphin, Charlie Appleby, and Frankie Dettori.
Peter Pan
There are not many trainers who are excited at the prospect of running their horses back in the Preakness two weeks after they were beaten by Mage in the Kentucky Derby.
Keith Desormeaux is one trainer who does want to run back. He just wants his horse Confidence Game to share that enthusiasm.
“I definitely want to run,” Desormeaux said. “We’re going to wait and make that final decision after we train him this weekend. I’ll have a final decision by Saturday or Sunday. I just want to see some vibrance in his training, a good appetite and all the typical things you know.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Twisted Ride will look to continue his streaking ways while Candy Man Rocket will try to bounce back from a last-place finish in his most recent start when they meet in Saturday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Runhappy Stakes at Belmont Park.
The six-furlong Runhappy drew only six, but the race does appear to lack a clear favorite.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Help is on its way to the California sprint and turf divisions in the final two races Saturday at Santa Anita.
Grade 1 winner Dr. Schivel returns in an allowance sprint, race 8. Thirty minutes later in race 9, Offlee Naughty tries to cement his one-race reputation as the circuit’s top distance turf horse; he meets Brazil Group 1 winner Planetario and others in the Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes.
Monmouth Park on the Jersey Shore launches a 61-day race meet Saturday, a season that figures to look a lot like the one in 2022.
The 61 days include 10 turf-only cards this fall at The Meadowlands. The Monmouth racing week remains a truncated three days, Friday through Sunday. Monday cards held last August, “a disaster” in the words of racing secretary John Heims, have been dropped.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though they combined to run six horses in last Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, trainers Brad Cox and Todd Pletcher still have an ample supply of 3-year-olds to be factors in other 3-year-old stakes to be run throughout the spring and summer.
Case in point is Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park, where Cox will send out Bishops Bay and maybe Slip Mahoney while Pletcher will have Classic Catch and Go Soldier Go in the 1 1/8-mile race that typically produces a starter or two for the Belmont Stakes, this year to be run June 10.
Gaslight Dancer, winner of the Palisades Stakes last month at Keeneland, and multiple stakes winner Private Creed, the beaten favorite in that race, get a rematch among a well-matched field of eight 3-year-olds set for the $225,000 William Walker Stakes on Saturday evening at Churchill Downs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – One of the few disappointments for England-based trainer Charlie Appleby in North America last year was Yibir’s third-place finish as the 1-2 favorite in the Grade 1 Man o’ War at Belmont Park.
Saturday, Appleby will look to make amends when he sends out Warren Point in this year’s Grade 1, $600,000 Man o’ War, one of three graded stakes on Saturday’s 11-race card at Belmont.
Trainer Eric Reed has resigned as the trainer of 2022 Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike due to differences with the colt’s owner, Rick Dawson, over a media deal to document their underdog story.
“We are all very sad – we love Richie,” Reed said in a text message Thursday morning. “But I was given an ultimatum and had no choice but to resign.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Our Flash Drive displayed an affinity for sprinting when taking the Grade 2 Bessarabian impressively in November and will shorten up to six furlongs in Saturday’s $150,000 Whimsical Stakes at Woodbine.
Our Flash Drive was campaigned primarily as a miler by Live Oak Plantation and trainer Mark Casse prior to the Nov. 12 Bessarabian. Sent off as the favorite in the seven-furlong test, she came wide from sixth to win going away by 5 3/4 lengths over Hazelbrook while receiving a 99 Beyer Speed Figure.
