BALTIMORE – By training the winner of the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, Doug O’Neill arrived at the peak of his profession. He said it was confirmation that, given the opportunity, he could compete at the highest level of the sport.
AUBURN, Wash. – Outa Crown, inexorably climbing the class ladder, will be the horse to beat Saturday in the feature race at Emerald Downs. One of nine races on a card beginning at 2 p.m. Pacific, the feature complements a full simulcast menu capped by the Preakness from Pimlico at about 3:18 p.m.
Owners Jerry and Ann Moss and trainer John Sadler have the favorite in the Grade 3 Railbird in Sister Moon, a Dixie Union filly who has won two of three starts. The $100,000 stakes is for 3-year-old fillies over seven furlongs.
Sister Moon has yet to win a stakes, having finished second in the minor Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita last October. In her only subsequent start, Sister Moon was an easy winner of an allowance race over six furlongs by 5 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita on March 23.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – When Ioya Bigtime crossed the finish sixth in the Ben Ali Stakes last month at Keeneland, the race’s winner was barely more than a tiny speck off in the distance. That was Wise Dan, who set a track record while running his Ben Ali opposition right off their feet. Wise Dan is being pointed to the Stephen Foster Handicap and Ioya Bigtime faces no rival of remotely comparable quality when he returns Saturday at Arlington in an interesting edition of the Grade 3, $150,000 Hanshin Cup, the first stakes race of the Arlington season.
BALTIMORE – It seems that no matter what I’ll Have Another does, he has to do it again. He has won 4 times in 6 starts, including his last three, the most recent being the Kentucky Derby, in which he outran 19 other 3-year-olds.
[bc_video_id:252139:]BALTIMORE − After an underachieving 3-year-old season, Casino Host has run two races this year that suggest he could be a significant player in the older male turf division.
He will try to continue his ascension Saturday, when he takes on 10 rivals in the Grade 3, $300,000 Dixie, the richest of six undercard stakes on Pimlico’s 13-race Preakness Day − and closing day − card.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Include Me Out has compiled a perfect record around two turns this year, giving owner Samantha Siegel and trainer Ron Ellis the needed encouragement for Saturday’s $150,000 Marjorie Everett Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park.
Wins in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes for 4-year-old fillies over 1 1/16 miles in January and the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Invitational against older mares in March at Santa Anita have left Include Me Out with the role of leading older female in Southern California.
Aces N Kings, who has a summer goal of making the $50,000 Assault on the main track at Lone Star Park on July 7, will take a step toward that race Saturday when he runs in an allowance feature at the Grand Prairie, Texas, track. The race will be run over 7 1/2 furlongs on turf and it is restricted to 3-year-olds and up bred in Texas.
Ransom Roberto has made the unlikely leap from $5,000 claimer to multiple stakes winner. On Saturday, he can push his earnings past $300,000 when he runs in the $55,000 Cherokee Nation Classic Cup at Will Rogers Downs.
The millionaire Russell Road will shorten up to 4 1/2 furlongs for only the second time in his long career when he faces six other West Virginia-bred sprinters in the $50,000 It’s Only Money Stakes at Charles Town.
The 6-year-old Russell Road, who is 20 for 33 lifetime, is more comfortable with his off-the-pace style going seven furlongs, the distance at which he scored by 4 1/2 lengths in his 2012 debut in the April 14 Confucius Say. But he did win last year’s running of the It’s Only Money as a follow up to his 2011 win in the Confucius Say.
