ARCADIA, Calif. – Midnight Transfer has shown hints in his brief career that he can be effective as a sprinter and a miler. It would be ideal if he were a little bit of both for Saturday’s $200,000 San Carlos Stakes over seven furlongs at Santa Anita.
“I just hope he’s good at seven-eighths,” trainer Carla Gaines said.
Twice the Lady and Moon Philly, both coming off stakes wins last month while equaling or setting a career-best Beyer Speed Figure, are prime contenders in a field of eight older fillies and mares in Saturday’s $75,000 Maryland Racing Media Stakes at Laurel Park.
But the best storyline in the 1 1/8-mile race is tied to Blessed Soul, a 7-year-old mare who will be a longshot after beating just one horse in her comeback following an absence of nearly two years.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With seven of the top 13 3-year-olds on Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch in his barn, Todd Pletcher has a problem any other trainer not named Bob Baffert would love to have – keeping his Kentucky Derby hopefuls separated while on the quest to amass as many qualifying points as possible for the main event on May 4.
With that in mind, Pletcher has entered only one of his leading Derby prospects, Violence, in Saturday’s $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. And in this case, one figures to be enough.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Data Link has won three of his four starts over the Gulfstream Park turf course, with the only blip on that record his third-place finish here a year ago in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf.
Data Link figures to make amends for that setback on Saturday when he goes off as the solid favorite in the $150,000 Canadian, which drew a field of 10 older horses scheduled to go a mile on the grass.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Action Andy finished third as the favorite in the Grade 3, $100,000 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park last time out. He returns to his favorite surface Saturday when he heads a field of nine crack sprinters in the $75,000 Super Stakes at seven furlongs.
The Super Stakes will be Action Andy’s first start in almost two months. His trainer, Carlos Garcia, said Action Andy gave him some indications after the Mr. Prospector that he needed a little break.
The Grade 3 Rachel Alexandra had all the makings of a terrific race among local fillies striving for the next level. Finding More, Dancinginthecircle, and Promise Me More are all minor stakes winners reaching for a brassier ring, while Alluring Lady, Blue Violet, Every Way, and Daddy’s Song all have recorded sharp victories at the 2012-13 meet at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
And then up pops the Pletcher juggernaut to spoil it all.
NEW ORLEANS – Targeting the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland for Daisy Devine, trainer Andrew McKeever views the Bayou Handicap on Saturday over the Fair Grounds grass course as an ideal prep.
Similar timing worked last year for Daisy Devine, McKeever said. She won the Mardi Gras in late February on the Fair Grounds turf before winning the Jenny Wiley in April.
“She’s ready to go,” McKeever said. “We schooled her in the paddock [Monday]. She was real good.”
PHOENIX – The local 3-year-old crowns are on the line Saturday at Turf Paradise in the $75,000 Turf Paradise Derby and $35,000 Arizona Oaks, and the lack of a dominant favorite in each race has resulted in two highly competitive tests. The derby, which goes as race 8, drew a field of nine males going 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The Oaks, race 6, matches 10 sophomore fillies going a mile on the main track.
Two of the great upset winners of the 2012 stakes season, Hero of Order and Golden Ticket, will square off Saturday in the Mineshaft Handicap at Fair Grounds.
Golden Ticket was disregarded last summer in the Travers Stakes, where he dead-heated with Alpha at odds of 33-1. But Golden Ticket’s surprise victory paled in comparison to the epic win Hero of Order took down in the Louisiana Derby, where he held off Mark Valeski – another Mineshaft starter – to score at odds of 109-1.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Seeking Ms Shelley, who won the $60,000 Spring Fever at Oaklawn last Sunday, could race again, said Lynden Branch, farm manager for the Dream Walkin' operation of country music artist Toby Keith. Seeking Ms Shelley was being considered for retirement before the race, and while she could still head to the breeding shed, Branch said there is a chance she might run in an upcoming stakes at Evangeline Downs.
