Last Dragoness will attempt to build on a smart debut win Saturday when she makes her first start against Colorado-breds in the $40,000 CTBA Lassie at Arapahoe Park.
The Lassie, at six furlongs, is restricted to 2-year-old fillies bred in Colorado.
Last Dragoness is part of a 10-horse field that includes her fellow last-out maiden winners Emma’s Dilemma, Snicker Jo, and Starry Starry Skys.
CTBA Lassie (Race 8)
KEY CONTENDERS
Last Dragoness, by Smoke Buster
Last Beyer: 19
ELMONT, N.Y. – Following on the heels of an expected appearance by Songbird in the Coaching Club American Oaks and then the Alabama Stakes, another female superstar may run at Saratoga – and she may run earlier than expected.
Tepin, a winner of seven consecutive races, including a victory in the Group 1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, could make her next start against males in the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave on Aug. 13.
Gabriel Charles, the Grade 1 winner who was plagued by a variety of ailments in a career spanning nearly four years, has been retired because of a tendon injury, trainer Jeff Mullins said on Thursday.
Gabriel Charles is a candidate for stallion duty, though no plans have been finalized, Mullins said.
Owned by Michael House and Sam Britt, Gabriel Charles won 4 of 12 starts and earned $604,400. He won three stakes, most notably the Grade 1 Eddie Read at Del Mar last July.
ARCADIA, Calif. – More than a year after he played a supporting role in the Triple Crown, Firing Line is ready for his 2016 debut in a second-level optional $62,500 claimer at Santa Anita on Saturday. Owner Arnold Zetcher and trainer Simon Callaghan are hopeful that the one-mile race will propel Firing Line into the nation’s leading races in the second half of the year.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Sedin could be the one in what appears to be a wide-open optional $25,000 claiming race at Hastings on Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up drew six horses and anchors a seven-race card that begins at 1:50 p.m. Pacific.
Invested Prospect is the one to catch and beat in a second-level allowance race at Emerald Downs on Saturday. The six-furlong dash for fillies and mares drew seven horses and has plenty of other speed, however. If Invested Prospect falters, Bonus Spin looks like the one with the best chance of picking up the pieces.
Trainer Mike Stidham will have a 10-horse string at Saratoga this summer, a new satellite stable for the Arlington-based operation.
“We’ve run at Saratoga but never stabled there,” Stidham said. “We’re not going to Del Mar this summer. We have four or five New York-breds to run, some 2-year-olds, and some turf horses we’re thinking about.”
One of those turf horses could be the 4-year-old filly Zipessa, who scored a front-running, two-length win in the Grade 3 Dr. James Penny Memorial on Monday at Parx Racing, equaling her career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure.
Helen Kleberg Groves has had an appreciation for a good horse since childhood, when her playground was her family’s famed King Ranch in south Texas. Her father, Bob Kleberg Jr., was the driving force behind such horses as Assault, who won the 1946 Triple Crown.
But before there was Assault, who will be honored with a stakes race Saturday night during the Stars of Texas program at Lone Star Park, there was Mr. Bones. He had no ties to King Ranch, but he became a favorite of little Helen’s.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Pizza Man used the 1 1/2-mile Stars and Stripes Stakes as a springboard to his rousing win in the 2015 Arlington Million, and his connections are sending him down the same path this summer.
The Pizza Man was one of 10 horses entered Wednesday in the Stars and Stripes, which is one of four Grade 3 turf stakes Saturday at Arlington designed as preps for races on the Aug. 13 Arlington Million card. The Stars and Stripes is worth $100,000, while the American Derby, Modesty, and Arlington Handicap are $125,000 races.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Lost Raven showed a new dimension when she rallied from eighth to win the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 20. That off-the-pace style might suit her well again in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride Stakes, a 6 1/2-furlong race that has plenty of speed types in its nine-horse field.
Lost Raven, a daughter of Uncle Mo, won the Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct on the lead prior to the Miss Preakness. She will break from post 8 under John Velazquez.
