Atthispointintime is an improving 3-year-old filly whose future racing path could be determined in Monday’s second race at Louisiana Downs. She will be making both her two-turn and turf debut in the first-level allowance, which will be run at about a mile. It is for fillies and mares, and the field of six is led by Kidding, who has finished second at this level in her last two starts, which came at Fair Grounds and Louisiana Downs.
Defending champion Humble Smarty leads a field of 10 for the five-furlong Honor the Hero Turf Express on Memorial Day at Canterbury Park.
Humble Smarty, who set the track record of 56.10 seconds in last year’s off-the-turf Honor the Hero, is looking to score first of the bench after a five-month break. Humble Smarty has fired two bullet works at Prairie Meadows leading up to the race, and Prairie’s leading jockey Alex Birzer makes the trip north from Iowa to take the reins.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Awesome Maria puts her six-race winning streak on the line against arguably the toughest field she’s met to date in Monday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park.
Usually the feature of a Saturday card in June, this year’s Phipps was moved to the same day as the Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap and Grade 1, $300,000 Acorn on a stellar 11-race program.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hard to say what is hotter: the triple-digit heat index that was supposed to hover over Churchill Downs through Memorial Day weekend, or the pressure a trainer feels when it takes a $1.3 million purchase four races just to make it through a maiden condition.
For the ever-cool Graham Motion, however, there have been few worries with the aptly named Onepointhreekarats, a 4-year-old filly who steps up into first-level allowance conditions Monday at Churchill after notching her first career victory over the local turf course during Kentucky Derby week.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Belle Royale starts in Monday’s $250,000 Gamely Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park as a leading contender on the basis of her four-race winning streak since last August.
The Grade 1 Gamely will be her first start in a race at the highest level, and a far cry from her group stakes debut back in 2010 in England. Belle Royale was a 200-1 shot in the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot and finished last in a field of 22.
Two years later, it is safe to say that Belle Royale has grown up nicely.
ELMONT, N.Y. –Trainer Tom Albertrani said he believes Zo Impressive has the quality to win a Grade 1 race. He’s hoping to be proven right Monday when Zo Impressive takes on five other 3-year-old fillies in the $300,000 Acorn at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – There may have been races run in the handicap division this year that have drawn bigger fields, but it would be hard to argue there have been any with a better field than the one assembled for Monday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park.
The six horses entered to run in the 119th Met Mile have combined to win 56 races, 17 of which were graded stakes, including five Grade 1s. The combined earnings of the sextet is $7.95 million.
MIAMI – With a little racing luck, Where’s Sterling would have surely hit the board and possibly even won the Grade 1 Donn Handicap earlier this winter at Gulfstream Park. But after a very disappointing performance seven weeks later in the Skip Away, Where’s Sterling remains a bit of a question mark as the starting highweight and heavy favorite in Monday’s $75,000 Memorial Day Handicap at Calder.
AUBURN, Wash. – Some of the story lines on a holiday Monday at Emerald Downs:
* In the featured eighth race, a $12,500 claimer for 3-year-olds bred in Washington, He’s a Cruiser profiles as the horse to beat. Just six runners were entered in the six-furlong affair and He’s a Cruiser is the quickest of the bunch -- he helped set a fast pace in a $17,500 claimer in his last start despite getting away a couple of lengths slow. The winner that day, War Wizard, was a formidable opponent, and He’s a Cruiser is a candidate to benefit from some class relief for trainer Vince Gibson.
