ELMONT, N.Y. − Saturday’s first race at Belmont Park is a second-level allowance/optional claiming event with a purse of $54,000.
It could be called the Comeback Derby.
Boys At Tosconova, the Grade 1 Hopeful winner from 2010, and Tapizar, the Grade 2 Sham Stakes winner from earlier this year, both return to the races in this seven-furlong race, which also includes Uptowncharlybrown, who hasn’t raced since last year’s Belmont Stakes.
ARCADIA, Calif. – They have pretty much abandoned trying to contain the 3-year-old sprinter around trainer Bob Baffert’s barn.
Thursday, two days before The Factor was scheduled to start as a heavy favorite in Saturday’s $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes at Santa Anita, Baffert wanted to jog The Factor for his morning routine only for exercise rider Manny Avila to beg otherwise.
“I wanted to jog him, but Manny pleaded with me to gallop him,” Baffert said. “He said, ‘I won’t be able to hold him tomorrow.’ ”
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – A couple of 6-year-old mares in peak form are among the overflow field Saturday at Keeneland in the $350,000 First Lady, a Grade 1 race that ranks among the deepest in the filly-mare turf division this year.
ELMONT, N.Y. – One might think a schedule that includes seven stakes – including starts in two of the three Triple Crown races – might take a bit of a toll on a horse. When it comes to Brilliant Speed, trainer Tom Albertrani believes the opposite is true.
“Actually, he’s better now than he’s ever been,” Albertrani said Thursday. “He looks a lot stronger, he’s been carrying a lot more weight. Usually he’s always been difficult to keep the weight on. He actually looks better now in his last two races than he ever has. I think that’s just due to the fact he’s just maturing.”
Keeneland’s motto – “Racing as it was meant to be” – is apt, but it only tells part of the story. Through its 75 years, Keeneland has grown from the Keene family’s breeding and training farm to an institution of international scope, and not just for its spring and autumn race meets. Keeneland remains a haven for central Kentuckians eager to “picnic with us and thrill to the sport of the Bluegrass,” as founding president Hal Price Headley once put it. As an auction house, Keeneland helped make Kentucky a center for international equine commerce.
Most races have some unknowns – uncertainties regarding horses or the race conditions that cloud the picture of how the race will unfold.
Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity – a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile – has way more than its fair share. A 1 1/16-mile race on Polytrack for juveniles, it drew a field of 14, plus two also eligibles – yet only one horse in body of the race, longshot Curfew Tower, has the experience of having raced two turns on a synthetic track.
There are faster qualifiers than Texasindependencegal in Saturday night’s Grade 1, $414,045 Dash for Cash Quarter Horse Futurity at Lone Star Park, but no runner has flashier form. She will be seeking her seventh consecutive win when she starts in the 400-yard race that will share a card with the Grade 2, $153,300 Dash for Cash Derby.
MIAMI – To turf or not to turf? That’s the question trainer Leo Azpurua Jr. must answer over the next several days in regards to his versatile 3-year-old Manicero, who has been nominated to compete in the Tropical Park Derby on grass here at Calder next Saturday as well as the $400,000 Oklahoma Derby to be decided over the main track at Remington Park the following afternoon.
Manicero is coming off a victory in the Needles Stakes here on Sept. 17. The outing was the first on grass for Manicero, who has also won six stakes on dirt.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Five races have come and gone since Gio Ponti last found the winner’s circle. No one disputes the class nor desire of a 6-year-old who has knocked out nearly $5.7 million in earnings, but the question must be asked: Is Gio Ponti really as good as he once was?
“I think he is as solid as he has ever been,” said Christophe Clement, who trains Gio Ponti for the Castleton Lyons of Shane Ryan. “He runs the same kind of numbers as he always does. So for me, he seems to be as good, even if he has not won, which is just what we call a lack of racing luck.”
