BALTIMORE – The depth of the Grade 2, $300,000 Dixie at Pimlico on Saturday makes it one of the best betting races on the Preakness card. The field of 13 has accounted for 14 graded stakes victories and includes Willcox Inn, Doubles Partner, Forte Dei Marmi, Optimizer, and Swift Warrior.
“It’s a very competitive race, a very well-balanced field,” said Graham Motion, who will send out Grade 3 winner Howe Great.
BALTIMORE - The proceeds of a sponsorship deal between the connections of Kentucky Derby winner Orb and Maserati, the car company, will benefit two racing charities, Stuart Janney III announced Thursday. Janney co-owns Orb with his cousin Ogden Mills Phipps.
[bc_video_id:292639:]INGLEWOOD, Calif. − Lady of Fifty’s Santa Anita campaign was abandoned in February after losses in two graded stakes early in the year.
It was an easy decision for trainer and co-owner Jerry Hollendorfer. The Betfair Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting was not that far off, and Lady of Fifty adores Hollywood Park’s synthetic main track.
BALTIMORE – Visiting the backside at Pimlico Race Course Preakness week is nothing new for Stuart Janney III, who lives only a few miles away in a town named Butler.
Visiting the backside at Pimlico Race Course Preakness week as the co-owner/breeder of a Kentucky Derby winner is certainly a unique experience for the 64-year-old Janney.
Trainer Joan Petrowski is hoping Dougs Buddy can keep his undefeated record in sprints intact when he runs in a six-furlong allowance race for 3-year-olds and up that drew eight horses at Northlands Park on Saturday. He will be making his first start since he went unplaced in the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby at Hastings on Sept. 9.
Petrowski is happy to be back in business after a $4,000 fine and six-month suspension she received from the stewards last year for a positive test for the anesthetic lidocain was quashed by the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.
AUBURN, Wash. – On a busy Saturday at Emerald Downs, a pair of allowance races will complement simulcast wagering on the Preakness Stakes as Kentucky Derby hero Orb zeroes in on the second leg of the Triple Crown. The nine-race program begins at 2 p.m. Pacific, and the Preakness runners will break from the Pimlico starting gate in Baltimore at about 3:20.
ALTOONA, Iowa – Following its simulcast of the Preakness, Prairie Meadows has slated a pair of featured six-furlong stakes sprints for Iowa-bred 3-year-olds, the $60,000 Bob Bryant for fillies and the $60,000 Gray’s Lake for colts and geldings.
Six evenly matched fillies and mares will line up for Saturday’s $200,000 Vagrancy Handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Spectacular Sky carries the nominal top weight of 118 pounds, giving one to four pounds to Fantasy of Flight, Glorious View, Irish Exchange, Miss d’Oro, and Withgreatpleasure.
The 63rd running of the Grade 2 Vagrancy is race 9 on a 10-race card and the third leg of a late pick four with a $300,000-guaranteed pool; post time is 5:17 p.m. Eastern.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Moonlit Beauty, winner of four stakes and almost $600,000, is by far the most accomplished member of the 12-horse field of Ontario-sired fillies and mares for Saturday’s $125,000 Ballade Stakes.
But can Moonlit Beauty shine under the circumstances, making her first start of the season at a six-furlong distance that isn’t her preferred trip?
BALTIMORE – Summer Applause bounced back from one bad effort earlier this year when she won the Grade 2 Top Flight at Aqueduct. Her connections hope she shows similar resilience in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Allaire duPont Distaff at Pimlico.
Summer Applause finished fourth in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 12, a race in which trainer Chad Brown said his filly apparently “didn’t care for the surface” at Oaklawn Park.
