A couple of first-level allowance races for 3-year-olds will share top billing at Northlands Park on Saturday.
Keene On Demand looks like the one to beat in the shorter version, which drew six horses going 6 1/2 furlongs in the second race. Just Gone should appreciate stretching out to a mile in the ninth race, which drew seven horses. Post time for the first of 10 races carded is 1 p.m. Mountain.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The summer solstice doing what it does to this western cusp of the Eastern time zone, the sun will still be up when the $100,000 Debutante Stakes is run on an 11-race Downs After Dark card Saturday night at Churchill Downs.
First post is 6 p.m. Eastern, with the Debutante, the seventh race, set for 9:05. This timing portends the perhaps unintended consequence of 11 2-year-old fillies competing in daylight, as opposed to the more glamorous scenario of under the sparkling lights.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Owner/trainer Dennis Lalman was suspended seven days and fined $1,000 after his horse Guyana Princess was found to have a substance banned for raceday use in her system following two races.
The suspension, which went into effect Thursday, was reduced from 15 days for Lalman waiving his right of appeal and is reflective of what a written ruling from the New York State Gaming Commission called “investigation findings.”
The two horses arrived at Santa Anita in May, fresh from a trip from South America and a weeklong quarantine in Miami. The 4-year-olds Di Giorgio and Safety Belt were first and second in separate Group 1 races in Argentina on May 1 and became the newest members of trainer Ron McAnally’s stable when they arrived in Southern California a few weeks ago. They are not well known in American racing.
Give McAnally time.
Trainer Steve Specht was impressed by Marks Mine when she began training as a 2-year-old, but apparently bettors were not. Marks Mine sped away from the field to win a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race by 3 1/2 lengths at Santa Rosa last summer in her debut, returning $44.40.
She’s continued to impress Specht in the seven starts since, and bettors have caught on, too. Marks Mine figures to be well bet Saturday in the $50,000 California Wine Stakes at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton. The six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies attracted a field of seven.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Doinghardtimeagain can prove in Saturday’s $150,000 Hollywood Oaks at Betfair Hollywood Park that she is capable of winning more than stakes for California-breds.
Already a winner of 4 of 8 starts and $483,770, Doinghardtimeagain makes her graded stakes debut in the Grade 2 Hollywood Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles on the synthetic main track. It is a surface that Doinghardtimeagain has proven she adores.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Ricky Griffith, known for sending out precocious juveniles, entered No Fruit Degroote and Ba Ba Brett in the first 2-year-old stakes of the Woodbine meet on Saturday, the $150,000 Victoria.
Griffith captured last year’s five-furlong Victoria with Ray’s Away, who was subsequently sold for a pretty penny. Ray’s Away was owned then by Debmar Stable, which owns both Griffith runners in Saturday’s renewal.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pender Harbour has been one of the most consistent horses on the grounds through his three campaigns, winning a total of seven stakes while racing on turf and Polytrack here at Woodbine and on the dirt at Fort Erie.
On Sunday, Pender Harbour will be making his first appearance as a 5-year-old and is returning from an eight-month layoff for trainer Mike DePaulo in the Grade 2, $600,000 King Edward Stakes at one mile on turf.
Travelin Man and Candyman E were beaten favorites in sprint stakes last time out. In March, both horses won stakes with Beyer Speed Figures within five points of each other. So, why is Travelin Man the 3-1 morning-line favorite and Candyman E a 10-1 outsider in the track program for Saturday’s $100,000 Donald LeVine Memorial Handicap at Parx Racing?
ELMONT, N.Y. - Souper Speedy, who was put up to first in the Jaipur Stakes when stablemate Big Screen inhibited him during the stretch run, worked four furlongs in 50.03 seconds Wednesday morning over the Belmont main track.
The Jaipur, a race scheduled for the turf, was rained off to the main track and Souper Speedy won as a main-track only entrant.
Trainer Tom Albertrani said he may enter Souper Speedy as a main-track only entrant in the Grade 3, $150,000 Poker on July 4 and hope for more rain.
