HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Newsdad had to defeat only three rivals when he captured the 2012 edition of the $150,000 Pan American Handicap. The reigning champion will find the starting gate a lot more crowded when he returns to Gulfstream Park on Saturday to defend his title in the Grade 2 marathon, to be decided at 1 1/2 miles on the turf.
Multiple stakes winner Bold Affair towers over her rivals in Saturday’s $100,000 Conniver Stakes for Maryland-bred fillies and mares at Laurel Park.
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NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Bret Calhoun jokingly called Beverly Belle “a rainmaker,” because several possible races for her at this Fair Grounds meet didn’t fill or were rained off the turf.
If the weather stays dry, Beverly Belle will be running on the turf course Saturday with an opportunity to score a repeat victory in the Red Camelia. Eight older Louisiana-bred fillies and mares are scheduled to run about 1 1/16 miles in the $60,000 feature on an 11-race card.
PHOENIX – It’s not often you get, in essence, to rerun the best race of the meet. But Saturday’s $35,000 Coyote Handicap at Turf Paradise does just that as the one-two-three finishers from the meet’s marquee event, the Phoenix Gold Cup on Feb. 16, go at it once more in this 6 1/2-furlong race. Eight of the best sprinters on the grounds are entered.
FLORENCE, Ky. – There were agonizing moments when Jeff Greenhill questioned why he ever gave up the security of being a government-employed chemical engineer to become a Thoroughbred horse trainer.
“One morning a few years ago, I was driving through the split in the hills near Carrollton,” said Greenhill, referring to the monotonous drive on Interstate 71 in Kentucky. “And I broke out in a sweat. I thought, ‘Where in the world is my next win coming from?’ All I had in the barn was manes and tails.”
The Spiral Stakes will be accompanied by two other stakes on Turfway Park's Saturday card – the Grade 3, $100,000 Bourbonette Oaks and the $75,000 Team Valor Rushaway Stakes.
Like the Spiral, the Bourbonette got a full field of 12, with Pure Fun making her 3-year-old debut as the 8-5 morning-line choice. Pure Fun, winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet in her most recent start Dec. 8, will be ridden by Garrett Gomez when breaking from post 5.
Discreet Dancer, the authoritative winner of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap on March 9, will attempt to become a Grade 1 winner when he runs in the $400,000 Carter Handicap here April 6, trainer Todd Pletcher said Wednesday.
Discreet Dancer is one of three horses Pletcher is scheduled to run in stakes on the April 6 card here. Verrazano is slated for the $1 million Wood Memorial, while Princess of Sylmar will go in the $250,000 Gazelle.
Majestic River will get her first shot at stakes competition Sunday when she lines up against seven other 3-year-old fillies in the $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks. The 1 1/16-mile race supports the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby and is one of seven stakes on the card.
In all, the races are worth $1.4 million to make for the richest program of the meet at Sunland, the New Mexico track located just next door to El Paso, Texas.
CINCINNATI – What amounts to a berth in the May 4 Kentucky Derby will be up for grabs Saturday when a wide-open field of 3-year-olds goes off at Turfway Park in the 42nd running of the Grade 3, $550,000 Spiral Stakes.
The Spiral is worth 50 points to the winner (85 in all) on the new eligibility system in place for the Derby, making it all but certain the winner will make the cut in case the 20-horse maximum is exceeded.
Quinzieme Monarque, fourth to Rydilluc in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream on March 3, will switch to dirt for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 6, trainer Tom Albertrani said.
Quinzieme Monarque, a son of Rock Hard Ten, is winless in two dirt tries, finishing fourth in an off-the-turf maiden race last summer at Saratoga and fourth, beaten 17 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 2 Remsen here last November.
“He may prefer the turf, but we’ll take a shot and see what happens,” Albertrani said.
