Win Willy, a Grade 2 winner in his last start of 2011 but beaten nearly a combined 20 lengths in his first two comeback races this season, will try to regain his form in Saturday’s $50,000 Joe French Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park.
Although the 6-year-old Win Willy owns back class, as a deep closer he will be at the mercy of the pacesetters in the 1 1/16-mile Joe French, and the race flow doesn’t appear to set up in his favor.
It has taken a great deal of time and a surgical procedure, but Presious Passion is finally ready to resume racing.
Unraced since January 2011, the 9-year-old Presious Passion will launch his comeback Saturday at a distance far less than he usually prefers in the $75,000 Elkwood Stakes at Monmouth Park.
A confirmed front-runner who won back-to-back runnings of the Grade 1 United Nations in 2008 and 2009 during a career in which he has earned $2.6 million, Presious Passion will use the one-mile Elkhorn as a stepping-stone to the Grade 2, $200,000 Monmouth Stakes on June 10.
Ny Randy Goulding
Gitter Done Girl looks as good as any in Saturday’s feature at Northlands Park. The six-furlong second-level allowance race drew seven hard-to-separate fillies and mares and will go as the seventh race on an eight-race card that starts at 1 p.m. Mountain.
In a race where most of the horses entered will be making their seasonal debut, it might be worth looking at which trainer has the best numbers with horses returning from extended layoffs.
MIAMI – The racing world lost one of its greatest sportsmen when Peter Fuller died earlier this week. But his legacy will be carried on Saturday at Calder by Trip for A.J., a Fuller homebred who will be one of the choices in the $55,000 Sara’s Success Stakes.
Sweet Little Sleet, winner of half of her six starts this year, looks to add to her string of recent successes as she heads a small but well-qualified group in Saturday night's Tellike Stakes at Evangeline Downs. The six filly and mare sprinters are set to go five furlongs on the turf in quest of the $50,000 purse.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Heading into May of last year, Distorted Love had nothing more than a maiden win to her credit, and a 1-for-18 record at that.
Twelve months later, her form is far superior, having added two more wins and two stakes placings, including a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Sixty Sails at Hawthorne on April 21.
ALTOONA, Iowa – Iowa’s best 3-year-olds come to the fore Saturday evening as Prairie Meadows runs the co-featured $60,000-added Bob Bryant Stakes, for fillies, and the $60,000-added Gray’s Lake, for colts and geldings. Both races will be contested over six furlongs.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Opening weekend at Canterbury Park will feature the first stakes of the season Saturday as Minnesota-breds head postward in the 10,000 Lakes Stakes for colts and geldings and the Lady Slipper for fillies and mares. Both races carry a purse of $35,000 and will be run at six furlongs over the main track.
Bizet, the 3-1 morning-line favorite, heads the field in the 10,000 Lakes. Bizet has been remarkably consistent, hitting the board in every race over the strip last season – including three stakes races – but he has not visited the winner’s circle since July 2010.
Trainer Patrick Biancone was quite succinct when asked what has impressed him most about the 3-year-old Innocent Man, who has won his first two career starts.
“He’s fast,” Biancone said.
After two front-running scores at Santa Anita, Innocent Man will make his stakes debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Chick Lang Stakes at Pimlico going six furlongs.
Richard Dutrow Jr., trainer of 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, will thrust himself into the national spotlight again on Saturday when he brings the 20-1 longshot Zetterholm to Pimlico for the 137th Preakness Stakes.
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