Little Ms Protocol is likely to start as a deserving favorite Saturday in the $60,000 Sarah Lane’s Oates, the featured race at Fair Grounds, but the characteristic that makes her look fairly formidable on paper – her level of accomplishment – is the same thing that suggests others might have a chance in the one-mile grass race for Louisiana-bred 3-year-old fillies.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Caleb’s Posse will likely be favored when he makes his 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap over Aqueduct’s inner track, but trainer Donnie Von Hemel makes no bones that he’s using this as a prep race for the Grade 1 Carter over the main track on April 7.
ARCADIA, Calif. – For the first time in his career, trainer Mike Pender will start two horses in two Grade 1 races Saturday at Santa Anita.
One horse is an anti-social, future stallion that charges the webbing when any filly walks past. Ultimate Eagle, game face on, is favored for the Santa Anita Handicap, race 11.
Thirty minutes earlier in race 10, Pender starts a fun-loving goof who also happens to be a leading contender in the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile, race 10. Jeranimo may not be as brilliant as his stablemate, but he is a lot more fun to spend time with.
I’ll Have Another, the upset winner of the Grade 2 Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4, will work six furlongs after the seventh race on Saturday, trainer Doug O’Neill said.
Owned by Paul Reddam, I’ll Have Another is being pointed for the Santa Anita Derby.
“It’s a little experience in front of a good-sized crowd,” O’Neill said of the workout. “He came out of the Bob Lewis in great shape. His stride is as long as ever and he’s full of energy. He seems like he’s up to taking on the big-time horses.”
\The 9-year-old veteran handicap star Awesome Gem is missing from Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap, but won’t be gone from the division for too much longer.
Training at Santa Anita with Craig Dollase, Awesome Gem is scheduled to return to racing this spring, with his first major goal the $1 million Charles Town Classic over 1 1/8 miles in West Virginia on April 14.
“We plan to run him at the end of March,” Dollase said. “We’re talking about the Charles Town race. We’ll see how it goes.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park on Saturday offers a reprieve from the 3-year-old route-racing mania that envelops the calendar each spring leading up to the Kentucky Derby. The track is putting young sprinters in the spotlight instead, with the running of the $60,000 Gazebo.
Exfactor, a Grade 3 winner at one-turn, and Mighty Monsoon, who is Grade 2-placed sprinting, are part of a strong, nine-horse field for the six-furlong race formerly called named the Mountain Valley. The field also includes Lake Victor, a runner building a win streak for trainer Steve Asmussen.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin only stayed at the University of Kentucky for one year, but he didn’t need a degree in mathematics to realize Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct was a much better spot for It’s Tricky to return to the races than last week’s Sabin Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
Not only does It’s Tricky get to run for twice the purse, she faces infinitely easier competition than the likes of Awesome Maria and champion Royal Delta, who ran 1-2 in last week’s Sabin.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dialed In and Pants On Fire won two of the most prestigious prep races on last year’s Kentucky Derby trail and ultimately wound up finishing just a neck apart when they met for the first and only time in the Kentucky Derby. Their paths will cross again here at Gulfstream on Saturday when both horses return from lengthy vacations to launch their 2012 campaigns in a high-priced optional claimer over the main track.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Holy Candy is still a maiden – and still very much on the Triple Crown trail from the perspective of trainer John Sadler.
In Saturday’s second race at Santa Anita, Holy Candy will be heavily favored to win a maiden race over 1 1/16 miles, which could lead to a major stakes appearance in late March or early April. Judging from the competition he has faced, Holy Candy will be difficult to oppose on Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ultimate Eagle was largely ignored by bettors as he amassed three graded stakes wins from mid-October to early February, going off at 34-1, 14-1, and 7-1 in those races.
Those days are long gone.
When Ultimate Eagle starts as the 120-pound highweight in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap, Ultimate Eagle will be the favorite to win the richest and most prestigious race of his career. Getting to these kind of races, a Grade 1 over 1 1/4 miles, is what owner B.J. Wright and trainer Mike Pender envisioned all along for the 4-year-old colt.
