The 77th running of the Longacres Mile is, as usual, the highlight of the 2012 Emerald Downs stakes schedule. The 81-day meet at the Seattle-area track begins April 13 and runs through Sept. 23.
The Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile will be run Sunday, Aug. 19, on a card with the $65,000 Emerald Distaff. Awesome Gem came in from California to win the Mile last year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - King and Crusader, who won two races over Aqueduct's inner track in four days including the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes, could make his next start in the Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes on March 3, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said Thursday.
King and Crusader, a son of Lion Heart, won a restricted optional claimer on Jan. 13 going a two-turn mile and then came on Jan. 16 to take the six-furlong Jimmy Winkfield.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Inherit the Gold, whose 104 Beyer Speed Figure earned in the Haynesfield Stakes on Jan. 22 at Aqueduct is the highest recorded in a two-turn race thus far in 2012, is targeting the $75,000 Mr. G.J.G. Stakes on Feb. 12, trainer Jim Hooper said.
Inherit the Gold won the Haynesfield by 6 1/4 lengths, running 1 1/16 miles 1:43.05 over the inner track.
Hooper was initially thinking of waiting for the $75,000 Kings Point on March 3 or the $150,000 Excelsior on March 17.
Algorithms, a runaway winner of the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes here Sunday, had his Beyer Speed Figure for the race elevated from a 98 to 105. That’s the highest number earned by any 3-year-old to this point of the season.
Andrew Beyer of Beyer Associates said the change was made due to what he believes is a problem with the timing system.
Trainer Graham Motion also is weighing his options for the return of Toby’s Corner who has not started since upsetting Uncle Mo 10 months ago in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial. Toby’s Corner has been training steadily for his return since arriving along with stablemate Animal Kingdom at Palm Meadows last month.
[bc_video_id:243348:]Empire Way, a 3-year-old full brother to the 2011 champion 3-year-old filly Royal Delta, may be slightly overlooked in Saturday’s $200,000 Robert Lewis Stakes.
With Liaison and Rousing Sermon, the first two finishers of the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park last month in the field, Empire Way will be a longshot. Fifth in the CashCall Futurity, Empire Way has drawn post 7 in a field of eight, leaving trainer Mike Harrington confident that an upset is possible.
By now, one would think, Star Guitar should have scared the competition away from Louisiana-bred dirt-route stakes. He has won the last six such stakes for older horses and has been defeated only twice in 21 races of the statebred-restricted variety. But the lure of second-money in a $200,000 race has drawn rivals out of the woodwork, with nine set to line up against the Louisiana kingpin Saturday night at Delta Downs in the Premier Night Championship, a race Star Guitar has won three years in a row.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Could the 2012 Queen’s Plate winner be running Saturday in the $150,000 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs?
Trainer Make Casse will send out a pair of talented fillies owned by John Oxley in Dixie Strike and Northern Passion, and while the trainer thinks both individuals have bright futures, he is high enough in his praise for Dixie Strike, a half-sister to 2011 Queen’s Plate winner Inglorious, to suggest she could win Canada’s biggest 3-year-old race of the season.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With Uncle Mo retired and Stay Thirsty still vacationing, things have been a little quiet in Mike Repole’s Thoroughbred world these days.
That could change Saturday when Repole’s pair of graded stakes winners Calibrachoa and Caixa Eletronica comprise a formidable entry in the Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes going six furlongs over Aqueduct’s inner track.
The Repole/Todd Pletcher-trained entry figures to go favored over the Michael Dubb-owned entry of Candyman E and Flat Bold in the eight-horse Toboggan.
