If the turnout at the entry box for Saturday’s Summit of Speed Preview card at Calder is any indication, this year’s Summit on July 7 could turn out to be the most successful yet.
Full fields abound in the four Preview Stakes, topped by the dozen fillies and mares set to go six furlongs in the $75,000 U Can Do It Handicap, the final local prep for Calder’s only Grade 1 race, the Princess Rooney Handicap.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A dozen horses will line up for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, but of that group, there are less than a handful with a legitimate chance of actually winning the race. Some of the field, including I’ll Have Another, have been training here regularly for the past several weeks. Others, like top contender Union Rags and longshot My Adonis, did not arrive on the grounds until Wednesday.
The following (listed in post position order) are the impressions the Belmont dozen have made during training hours over the past week.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The second-best place to be to watch the Belmont Stakes on Saturday is at Hastings, where a huge crowd is expected to gather with hopes of seeing former local jockey Mario Gutierrez complete his quest to win the Triple Crown aboard I’ll Have Another. To accommodate the expected size of the crowd, Hastings has moved post time for the first race up an hour to 12:50 p.m. Pacific.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A rivalry between Winter Memories and Hungry Island that began in 2010 but heated up last summer gets renewed Saturday when the two 4-year-old fillies head a seven-horse field entered in the Grade 1, $500,000 Just a Game Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Just a Game, run at one mile over the Widener turf course, goes as race 8 and is the first leg of a pick-four wager that has a guaranteed pool of $1 million.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Giant Ryan, the New York-bred horse of the year in 2011, will return to the scene of his finest hour on Saturday when he starts as the 120-pound highweight in the $400,000 True North Handicap at Belmont Park.
Giant Ryan registered the most important victory of his career over a sloppy track at Belmont in October, leading throughout to post a half-length victory over Force Freeze in the Grade 1 Vosburgh. The win was the sixth of the season for Giant Ryan, a son of Freud who also captured the Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap over his home base at Calder last summer.
Bob’s Dylan and Nicole’s Miss El, both of whom have been firing a string of bullet workouts all spring at Finger Lakes, will clash for the first time in the $50,000 Susan B. Anthony Handicap, a six-furlong race for New York-bred fillies and mares.
Bob’s Dylan, a 7-year-old trained by Michael Ferraro, won the 2009 running of the Susan B. Anthony and is 13 for 27 locally. In preparation for her first start since November, Bob’s Dylan posted four bullet works between May 5 and June 3, including five furlongs in 1:01 and a half-mile in 47.60 seconds on May 27.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jockey Alex Solis has been fined $6,000 for excessive use of the whip aboard Irish Mission in last Sunday’s Woodbine Oaks.
Irish Mission won the Woodbine Oaks by three-quarters of a length, earning $300,000. Under Ontario Racing Commission rules, the fine for a whip violation in races worth $100,000 or more is calculated on the basis of 20 percent of the jockey’s 10 percent share.
The stewards ruled that Solis had struck Irish Mission more than three times in succession.
ELMONT, N.Y. – I’ll Have Another was born in Kentucky, received his early training in Florida, began his racing career in California, and has flown to Kentucky, Maryland, and twice to New York in the past nine months.
Stopshoppingmaria and Judy the Beauty, who closed their 2-year-old campaigns by running second in graded stakes, make their first starts of 2012 in the $60,000 Crank It Up at Monmouth Park. A 5 1/2-furlong turf stakes, the Crank It Up has a field of six 3-year-old fillies.
Based in New York with trainer Todd Pletcher, Stopshoppingmaria has been off since she set the pace and begrudingly gave way to Stephanies Kitten in the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last November.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Teeth of the Dog drops in class after respectable efforts in two Grade 1 stakes, and will be the one to beat in the $100,000 Easy Goer Stakes on Saturday at Belmont Park.
Nine 3-year-olds entered the 1 1/16-mile Easy Goer, which begins an all stakes pick six with a $1 million guaranteed pool. Post time is scheduled for 2:34 p.m. Eastern.
Teeth of the Dog improved over the winter at Gulfstream Park for trainer Michael Matz, culminating with a maiden win against a field that included Went the Day Well, subsequently fourth in the Kentucky Derby.
