SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Trainer Chad Brown has won six of the last seven runnings of the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes and is expected to have five runners in next Friday’s renewal of the $500,000 one-mile turf race.
Brown is planning to run Beaute Cachee, Chili Flag, Coppice, Gina Romantica, and Whitebeam in the Just a Game. Some of those fillies and mares were also nominated to the Grade 1, $750,000 New York at 1 3/16 miles on the same card.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The reigning 2-year-old male champion Fierceness may not be running next weekend in Saratoga, but the reigning 2-year-old filly champ will be, as Just F Y I had her final preparations Friday morning for next Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Acorn Stakes at Saratoga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher may not be running his most accomplished 3-year-old in the Belmont Stakes on June 8, but he could arguably be running his most exciting prospect when he sends out Mindframe in the third leg of Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown to be run at Saratoga.
Free Like a Girl, who placed in back-to-back Grade 1 races this spring, now ranks third among all accredited Louisiana-breds in earnings and could make a serious move up the charts next month.
Trainer Chasey Deville-Pomier said Wednesday that Free Like a Girl could make her next start in the Grade 2, $500,000 Fleur de Lis on June 29 at Churchill Downs. The mare made her last start at the Kentucky track and was second in the La Troienne won by returning champion Idiomatic.
Kentucky-based trainer Mike Maker won his 27th stakes race over a Texas turf course Monday with Dana’s Beauty in the $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff at Lone Star Park.
Maker’s outstanding record includes 17 turf stakes victories at Sam Houston Race Park, where he has won eight runnings of the Grade 3 John B. Connally Turf Cup. Maker also has won six turf stakes at Retama Park.
Dana’s Beauty became his fourth turf stakes winner at Lone Star, where she tracked pacesetter Libban in second before securing a head win under Ramon Vazquez.
Spirit Wind is under serious consideration for the $500,000 Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon Stakes at Charles Town following her standout victory in the $100,000 Memorial Day Sprint at Lone Star Park.
Spirit Wind breezed home by 3 1/2 lengths Monday and covered six furlongs in a sharp 1:09.37. Spirit Wind was assigned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 99.
“She ran big,” said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. “I think six, six and a half furlongs is probably her best distance.”
Fierceness, last year’s 2-year-old champion male who finished 15th as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby, will skip the $2 million Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga and instead point to the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell on July 20 at Monmouth Park, trainer Todd Pletcher said Thursday afternoon.
Pletcher said he feels Fierceness “needs a little more time” after his race in the Derby.
Though he won’t make a final decision until Sunday, trainer Kenny McPeek appears to be leaning toward running Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan in the $2 million Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga.
During a national conference call Thursday, McPeek said that if Mystik Dan works well this weekend at Saratoga and comes out of it well, he would likely run in the Belmont where he would face Preakness winner Seize the Grey. It would be the first meeting of separate winners of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness since Orb and Oxbow met in 2013.
Twelve of the 24 Belmont Stakes run since 2000 have been won by horses who ran in but did not win the Kentucky Derby, skipped the Preakness, and came in relatively fresh for the third leg of racing’s Triple Crown.
There figures to be a handful of horses attempting to duplicate the likes of Mo Donegal (2022), Essential Quality (2021), Palace Malice (2013), Birdstone (2004), and Commendable (17th in 2000) when this year’s Belmont Stakes is run June 8 at Saratoga and at the shortened distance of 1 1/4 miles.
Throughout California, April 27 was a rough afternoon for trainer Blaine Wright.
Clovisconnection finished last of 11 in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields, shortly after Prince Abu Dhabi finished sixth of seven in the Kona Gold Stakes at Santa Anita.
Redemption may occur at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton when the two 4-year-old geldings could start in the $150,000 Pleasanton Mile.
