LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wise Dan drew post 6 in the field of eight older horses entered in the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile on Saturday at Keeneland.
Wise Dan, the two-time reigning Horse of the Year, will have John Velazquez aboard when going for his 14th victory in his last 15 starts in the Shadwell, which had a purse increase from last year and will be the first seven-figure race in track history.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After disappointing on dirt in the Travers, Mr Speaker returns to turf in Saturday’s Grade 3, $500,000 Hill Prince Stakes at 1 1/8 miles.
The Hill Prince replaces the Grade 1 Jamaica on the calendar. The Jamaica was moved to July 5 and renamed the Belmont Derby, which Mr Speaker won. Mr Speaker defeated several European-based horses in the race, and he will face two European challengers Saturday: Cabral and Sloane Avenue.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Feathered was an odds-on favorite in her first two starts, winning a maiden race by 9 3/4 lengths at 4-5 after getting beat a head in her debut at 3-5.
Her backers figure to get a bigger price on Feathered in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Frizette Stakes, where she will take on graded stakes winners Cavorting and Condo Commando. Seven 2-year-old fillies were entered for the Frizette, a one-turn, one-mile race that awards the winner a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.
Todd Pletcher has won two of the past four runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and a month ago it appeared as though the trainer would have one of the favorites for this year’s race after Competitive Edge won the Grade 1 Hopeful impressively at Saratoga.
In subsequent training, however, Competitive Edge suffered an injury that will sideline him for the remainder of the year. Now, entering the final week of major preps for this year’s 31st Breeders’ Cup, Pletcher’s hopes of returning to the Juvenile rest with a pair of lightly raced, though seemingly very talented runners.
He’s back! Or is he?
Wise Dan is the gleaming headliner on the last major weekend of North American grass racing leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and the 7-year-old gelding – a two-time Horse of the Year and two-time BC Mile winner – stands on a strange threshold.
A strong showing Saturday at Keeneland in the Shadwell Turf Mile sends Wise Dan back to Santa Anita for his third BC Mile, where he could become one of only two three-peat winners of a Breeders’ Cup race, along with Goldikova.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Tony Dutrow is more interested in looking back than looking ahead when it comes to his 2-year-old I Spent It.
When Dutrow brings I Spent It to Belmont Park for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes, he is simply hoping to see the horse who dazzled in his first two starts and not the one who disappointed in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga. The Breeders’ Cup? Any thoughts about that will come later.
In a normal year, Vicar’s in Trouble would be the star of the show in the Indiana Derby, and indeed, the winner of the Lecomte Stakes, Louisiana Derby, and Super Derby is a major attraction Saturday night at Indiana Grand in the Grade 2, $500,000 race.
But Vicar’s in Trouble was made the 2-1 morning-line second choice when a nine-horse field for the race was drawn Wednesday, while Atreides, who never has even started in a graded stakes, is the 6-5 morning-line favorite.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York stewards suspended jockey Junior Alvarado for 15 days for careless riding following the incident in last Saturday’s $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park that left fellow rider Rajiv Maragh with a broken arm.
Alvarado has appealed the suspension, contending that it is more severe than penalties given to other jockeys on this circuit for careless riding.
Twice in his career, Cigar Street has been sidelined by serious injuries, but he has come back as good as ever this fall, and his victory Saturday in the Homecoming Classic at Churchill Downs has left his connections contemplating a run in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, trainer Bill Mott said Wednesday.
The Homecoming Classic was only the second start this year for Cigar Street following a 16-month layoff because of a cannon-bone fracture, the second he has suffered during his oft-interrupted career.
Saturday’s $200,000 City of Hope Mile on turf at Santa Anita will have a large field but will not include three graded stakes winners in the last year on this circuit – Obviously, Silentio, and Tom’s Tribute. They are being held out for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 1.
The candidates for the City of Hope Mile include the 2014 stakes winners Avanzare, Grand Tito, Pepper Crown, Soi Phet, and Trend; as well as Big Bane Theory, Rock Me Baby, Schoolofhardrocks, and Starspangled Heat, who have placed in stakes this year.
