ELMONT, N.Y. − Allen Iwinski has entered Sean Avery so many times in the last three weeks that the 6-year-old gelding’s return to the races in Saturday’s $80,000 Affiliate Stakes is almost anti-climactic to the trainer.
After several aborted attempts, Sean Avery will return from a 13-month layoff against five opponents in the six-furlong Affiliate at Belmont Park.
Fugitive Angel, a Grade 3 stakes winner two years ago, and Sloane Ranger, beaten a mere 1 1/2 lengths in a Grade 2 event two months ago, return to statebred company during Saturday’s Pennsylvania Day at the Races showcase at Parx Racing. Five stakes worth a collective $400,000 will be contested on the 11-race card.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Granted, there’s not much going on in Southern California this weekend, but it still seems noteworthy that SoCal-based jockey Garrett Gomez is named to ride Pataky Kid in the Arlington-Washington Futurity on Saturday.
Pataky Kid has only a maiden win to his credit, but the strong kick he exhibited in that Aug. 9 Arlington race marked him as one of the more promising juveniles in the Midwest, and Pataky Kid has come back from that performance with three fast Arlington workouts.
AUBURN, Wash. – A $7,500 claimer for 3-year-olds will serve as the feature race Saturday as Emerald Downs winds toward the concluding acts of its 81-day meeting. Sunday is Washington Cup Day, when many of the best runners bred in the state will compete for $215,000 in purses across six stakes races. After that, just six racing dates remain, with the Gottstein Futurity and a series of lucrative starter allowances the closing-day highlights on Sept. 23.
BOSSIER CITY, La. – Blueskiesnrainbows will be a short-priced favorite in the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs on Saturday because of both his connections and credentials. He is a Bob Baffert-trained 3-year-old coming off a Grade 2 win in Southern California, and he is to be ridden by Joe Talamo, the Louisiana native who went on a stakes tear at Del Mar.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Shug McGaughey hopes it won’t be déjà vu all over again when he sends out Air Support as the probable favorite in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Bowling Green Stakes, the featured event on Belmont Park’s 10-race opening-day card.
In last Saturday’s Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga, McGaughey saddled even-money favorite Data Link in a short field with no pace. Dominus, trying turf for the first time, got loose on the lead and beat Data Link by 1 1/4 lengths.
As far as supporting stakes go, the four turf events on Saturday’s Super Derby card go above and beyond the call of duty. Competitive fields and compelling story lines, not to mention six-figure purses, should help hold everyone’s interest on the biggest afternoon of the Louisiana Downs season.
The $100,000 River Cities gets the turf stakes action started in the sixth race. Eight fillies and mares are set to go 1 1/16 miles, including She’s All In, winner of last year’s River Cities.
There are always concerns about whether a horse can return to form following a layoff, especially when an injury is involved.
But trainer Buff Bradley seems unconcerned that Groupie Doll, arguably the leading candidate in the filly-mare sprint division, has lost anything in the four months since she wowed the racing world with a seven-furlong track record in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff on the May 5 Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill Downs.
POMONA, Calif. – After five runner-up finishes and a losing streak that lasted one year, Going for a Spin did something different last out. Rather than finish second, she ran fifth.
Going for a Spin’s drought makes her an easy target for skeptical handicappers Saturday at Fairplex Park. Can you blame them? Nine straight losses will temper enthusiasm, even if trainer Jerry Hollendorfer believes she had a valid excuse for her most recent defeat.
“She was kind of trapped with nowhere to go,” Hollendorfer said. “The race was over by the time she started running.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – When trainer Bob Baffert shipped his runners to Del Mar for the summer, he had high hopes for Rolling Fog, who had been tearing up the track in his workouts at Santa Anita as he neared his debut. But in his first work over the Polytrack surface at Del Mar, Rolling Fog struggled, and Baffert briefly contemplated sending him to Saratoga to keep him on dirt.
