OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The pick six was hit Thursday for only the second time in the last eight racing days. There were five winning tickets, each worth $132,209 for the 15-3-5-15-4-9 combination of Stud Muffin ($5.80), The Roundhouse ($22.80), My Unbridled Storm ($12.20), Cosmic King ($9.70), Grand Strategy ($7.20), and Saucy Jade ($7.90).
The 5-of-6 consolation paid $686.
With a three-day carryover of $237,446 going in, an additional $763,224 was bet into the pick-six pool Thursday.
MIAMI – Trainer Roger Attfield has settled into his winter base at Payson Park fresh off his first-ever Breeders’ Cup victory with Perfect Shirl and will waste little time getting into action locally. He plans to send horses down to Calder to run in both the Grade 3 My Charmer on Thanksgiving Day and the Grade 2 W L McKnight that Saturday.
Oregon Lady will look for her second straight stakes win and first graded victory in the My Charmer. A 4-year-old Irish bred, she is coming off the best race of her career, a 4 1/2-length victory in the River Memories Stakes at Woodbine.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Fresh off a big payday in the $400,000 Oklahoma Derby, Redeemed will be a clear favorite to notch his first graded stakes victory in Saturday’s Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct. He will carry top weight of 121 pounds and concede five to seven pounds to seven rivals, including Wood Memorial runner-up Arthur’s Tale.
The richest race run each year at Evangeline Downs goes Saturday night, when nine 2-year-olds face off in the $517,844 Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Futurity. The 400-yard race is a restricted Grade 1 and it anchors a program of four stakes that includes a $91,384 consolation for the LQHBA. There also are two divisions of the $50,000 Evangeline Downs Derby.
Valid A.J. will finally shake the undefeated Now I Know on Saturday night when she runs in the $50,000 Oklahoma Stallion Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Remington Park. Her nemesis will be at Delta Downs to compete in the Grade 3, $500,000 Princess.
Uncle Virgil will try to replicate his maiden win when taking on nine other Ohio-accredited 2-year-olds in the $50,000 Ohio Freshman at Beulah Park on Saturday.
Trained by Kathy Lowry, Uncle Virgil won his debut locally Nov. 5 by 8 1/4 lengths when ridden out to the wire. That event was at the same six-furlong distance as the Ohio Freshman, and Uncle Virgil earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 59, at least 14 points higher than his nearest rival’s lifetime best.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Paso Doble thrust himself into the Sovereign Award picture for champion sprinter with a decisive victory in the allowance prep for the Grade 3 Kennedy Road Stakes. He will contest the $150,000 Kennedy Road on Saturday at Woodbine, a six-furlong sprint that could have significant Sovereign Award implications.
Glenwood Canyon might get some fractions he can sink his teeth into Saturday when he faces a pair of swift Southern California shippers and a Kentucky-based front-runner in the $125,000 Delta Mile at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
“One target after another is good for him,” said Al Stall Jr., who trains Glenwood Canyon for Columbine Stable.
Candrea did the hard work in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies when she made the fractions before tiring to finish 11th. On Saturday, somebody else might be setting the table for Candrea, who could get an ideal tracking trip in the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess, a one-mile race for 2-year-old fillies that is part of an eight-stakes package at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If pace really makes the race, the two highweights in the River City Handicap should be just fine.
Speed seems to abound in the Grade 3, $100,000 River City, which drew a field of eight older horses and will be run at 1 1/8 miles Saturday on the Churchill Downs turf. On paper, anyway, that should set things up for stretch-runners Tajaaweed, the 119-pound topweight, or Blues Street, 116.
