ELMONT, N.Y. – In some respects, Graydar may be the most fascinating horse entered on Saturday’s card at Belmont Park.
Among the early-season leaders of the older male division, with victories in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap and Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap, Graydar has been absent for six months, owing to surgery to remove ankle chips.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Although the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes is merely a prep race for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, this year the prep offers almost as much appeal as the main event.
A deep field of fillies and mares race 1 1/16 miles Saturday at Santa Anita in the $250,000 Zenyatta. The race is expected to produce the BC Distaff second betting choice, assuming Royal Delta wins the Beldame Saturday and runs in the Distaff and not the BC Classic.
ELMONT, N.Y. – On paper, it appears to be a sexy matchup. The 5-year-old mare Royal Delta, a two-time Eclipse Award winner, versus Princess of Sylmar, the leader of the 3-year-old filly division, in Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame Invitational at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A return to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint with Justin Phillip has been on Steve Asmussen’s mind since he left Santa Anita last year following a fifth-place finish in that race.
“His race last year in the Breeders’ Cup was deceptively good,” said Asmussen, who trains Justin Phillip for Zayat Stables. “He got squeezed at the start, he ran his last quarter [fast], and was one of the few horses closing anything at all.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – She’s a Tiger will break from the outside in a field of eight 2-year-old fillies while making her first start around two turns in Saturday’s $250,000 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita. For some trainers, an outside post and a new distance would be a concern, but Jeff Bonde said he is not too worried.
“That’s why you ride Gary Stevens,” he said of the 50-year-old Hall of Famer.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The stakes are too high and the field too deep to call Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park merely a prep race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Paynter has battled back from serious illness and wrote a storybook chapter with his dazzling comeback victory in June, but two losses since then, including the worst finish of his career last time out in the Woodward at Saratoga, have left him at a pivotal point as he approaches the $250,000 Awesome Again Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Five of the eight entrants in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational are foreign-bred horses, but they’ve all been racing in the United States for a while now.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When it comes to winning major races, Ian Wilkes proudly emulates his mentor, Hall of Fame trainer Carl Nafzger. There has been an unmistakable pattern to how it’s done, one that Nafzger frequently has said results in having a horse peak on the day of the big race – and not before.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown is taking his best shot at Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont Park. With no suitable spots to split them up before the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, Brown will run the Grade 1-winning pair of Real Solution and Big Blue Kitten. The 1 1/2-mile test on the Widener course is a Win and You’re In race for the BC Turf.
