Hannahslittleangel should be a slight favorite when she takes on six other 3-year-old fillies in the $10,000-added Inaugural Stakes, a six-furlong race that opens the stakes schedule at Columbus’ Ag Park on Saturday.
Hannahslittleangel won the Princess Stakes at Lincoln Race Course on May 12 and faced much tougher older fillies and mares in optional claiming company in her two starts since, finishing fifth and fourth.
Foreign Girl flashed talent last year, when she won her debut by nine lengths and then captured a division of the $100,000 Louisiana Stallion Stakes. Her third start comes Saturday, when she returns from a 10-month layoff in the fifth race at Louisiana Downs, a six-furlong optional $17,500 claimer that has second-level allowance conditions.
Foreign Girl’s task will not be easy. She is part of a competitive field of seven fillies and mares, led by Street Storm, a stakes winner who was eighth in the 2011 Kentucky Oaks, and Naevus Girl, a sharp older mare moving back to dirt.
Delaunay will attempt to win his second consecutive stakes when he runs in the $60,000 Stonewall Farm Ocala Hockessin at Delaware Park on Saturday afternoon. The Hockessin has a field of nine, including an entry.
A 5-year-old gelding trained by Tom Amoss, Delaunay earned a career-best 97 Beyer when he won the Kelly’s Landing at Churchill on June 23. Before that he won a 40,000 claiming event at Churchill on May 12, a race from which Amoss claimed Delaunay.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In a perfect world, trainer Michael Matz would be taking Union Rags to Monmouth Park for Sunday’s $1 million Haskell while pointing Teeth of the Dog to next weekend’s $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer.
In the imperfect world that is horse racing, Matz has had to make a different plan.
A suspensory injury has prematurely ended the career of Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags, prompting Matz and owner Jose Singer to run Teeth of the Dog in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga.
Grand Traverse is showing few signs of aging, as evidenced by the way the 9-year-old gelding ran off to a 3 1/4-length victory in an allowance race at Indiana Downs last month, earning a 94 Beyer Speed Figure.
“He’s been an amazing horse,” said Lori Hebel-Osborne, who heads the Mimicry Partnership that has owned Grand Traverse throughout his 54-race career. “He really does love his job.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Rail Trip is more than two years removed from his last stakes win, the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Hollywood Park. Nearly three years have gone by since his only start on the Del Mar Polytrack surface, a game third in the 2009 Pacific Classic.
Those two facts make his appearance in Saturday’s $200,000 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar all the more intriguing. A 7-year-old with two losses earlier this year, Rail Trip has a chance to prove he is back to his best, the form that led to a win in the 2009 Hollywood Gold Cup.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Willa B Awesome is a filly who thrives on activity.
In five starts since late January, she has won three stakes, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on March 31. The timing of races is a key element to that success. On June 23, she was sixth in the Grade 2 Hollywood Oaks, her worst performance of the year. The race came after an eight-week break that was too long, trainer Walther Solis said.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Graham Motion shipped Howe Great to Monmouth Park from his base at Maryland’s Fair Hills training center to capture the Jersey Derby last weekend as the 3-10 favorite. Motion will try to also take the companion event for fillies on Saturday with Proud Pearl in the $60,000 Desert Vixen for 3-year-olds on the turf.
The price figures to be much higher in this wide-open 1 1/16-mile race, which lacks a standout graded runner like Howe Great.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario − Coming off a 5 1/2-length win in the Clarendon on June 30, Uncaptured looms as the one to beat in Saturday’s $150,000 Vandal Stakes at Woodbine.
A six-furlong race for Ontario-foaled 2-year-olds, the Vandal attracted a field of six, and Uncaptured is one of three from the barn of trainer Mark Casse, along with Calgary Cat and Dynamic Strike.
Uncaptured and Calgary Cat are owned by John Oxley. Casse said only one would start and that Calgary Cat is in more as a backup.
