HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Proxy and Charge It will be adding new equipment Saturday when they take on Stilleto Boy, Last Samurai, and Classic Causeway in the Grade 2, $1 million Oaklawn Handicap.
The horses are part of a competitive renewal of the 1 1/8-mile feature, which continues the Racing Festival of the South. The Oaklawn Handicap will be showcased on a 12-race card that includes the $200,000 Bath House Row, which awards the winner a berth into the Preakness Stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For three months, during the summer and fall of 2021, Choose Joy was the undisputed queen of the local filly and mare turf sprint division, winning three straight overnight handicaps going five furlongs, two of them on the grass. The question facing handicappers now is whether Choose Joy is ready to regain her throne following a prolonged layoff and with two races under her belt in a $60,000 overnight handicap for fillies and mares carded at five furlongs on the grass.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eclipse Award champion Channel Maker and fellow multiple graded stakes winner Red Knight meet up for the second time this season as they head the field for Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Elkhorn Stakes on the Keeneland turf.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Skippylongstocking is looking to crash the highest echelon of the older handicap ranks after a solid start to his career, just like some of his opponents will be doing in the Ben Ali Stakes.
It’s just that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and there will be chances beyond this Grade 3 race Saturday at Keeneland.
ARCADIA, Calif. – California speedball Brickyard Ride always brings heat in April at Santa Anita, and the tradition continues on Saturday.
For the third straight year, the front-runner is favored to win the Grade 3 Kona Gold Stakes. This season, however, Brickyard Ride enters in uncertain form. Unlike 2021 when he finished second, or 2022 when he won, Brickyard Ride enters the Kona Gold this year following a loss.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There are no shortage of changes in the ranks as the 2023 Woodbine meet begins Saturday with a nine-race card of short Tapeta sprints.
The popular journeyman Steven Bahen has retired, and Antonio Gallardo is not returning after riding regularly here in 2021-22.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine launches its 2023 season on Saturday with a meet that largely resembles the 2022 version.
Racing is scheduled for 133 days, ending Dec. 17. It will be conducted with a 1:10 p.m. post time on weekends until May 5, when Fridays will be added. Thursday racing begins May 25 with a 4:50 p.m. post time.
The stakes program will offer more than $17 million in purses, including 39 graded stakes, five Grade 1 events, and two $1 million fixtures, the King’s Plate and Woodbine Mile.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although trainer Todd Pletcher shipped a large contingent of his powerhouse stable north earlier this week, he left some of his stars behind for the time being. Among them is Following Sea, who has been idle since finishing a game second to stablemate Americanrevolution in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct 16 months earlier.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Chad Brown-trained, Peter Brant-owned entry of Arina and Yukata head a six-horse field of fillies and mares entered in a second-level allowance/optional $62,500 claiming race on turf, one of four allowance events on the nine-race Friday card at Aqueduct.
