ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer David Fawkes believes Big Drama will benefit from having a tough race going into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He just wasn’t looking for something this tough.
Big Drama, last year’s champion sprinter, heads a fantastic field of fast sprinters set to contest six furlongs in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Vosburgh Invitational, unquestionably the most competitive of the six graded stakes races to be run at Belmont Park.
When Larry Jones took over as the trainer of Havre de Grace earlier this year, he was immediately struck by how effortlessly she did everything. Here is a man who has trained the likes of Hard Spun, Proud Spell, and Eight Belles, and yet he says of Havre de Grace that “this is the first time in my life I thought I had the total package.”
“She is some kind of animal,” he said.
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When Chief of Affairs draws the rail, the results tend to be golden. Friday night, his connections will be hoping for more of the same when the horse breaks from the fence in the $100,000 David A. Vance Stakes at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
The Vance, for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs, is a new race this season. Named for the former Remington executive, it drew a diverse cast that includes Tend and Native Ruler, the one-two finishers in a Mountaineer stakes in August, and Humble Destin, the runner-up in the $50,000 Temperence Hill earlier this month at Louisiana Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Acclamation drew the rail for Saturday’s $250,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita, but that may be as close as the top older horse in California gets to starting in the Grade 1 race.
Trainer Don Warren said on Wednesday that Sunday’s $150,000 Clement Hirsch Invitational over 1 1/4 miles on turf remains the more likely start this weekend for Acclamation, the winner of four consecutive graded stakes.
“We’ll enter in both races,” he said. “I like the Sunday race myself, but we wanted to see who was in there. We’re ready for either race.”
Seven horses who won races on last year’s Maryland Million, led by Breeders’ Cup prospect Ben’s Cat in the Turf Sprint, highlight the 11-race lineup drawn Wednesday for Saturday’s 26th annual Jim McKay Maryland Million at Laurel Park.
The event, worth a collective $1.05 million, begins at 12:35 p.m. Eastern and consists of nine stakes, plus two starter handicaps. All 11 races are restricted to the offspring of Maryland-based stalions.
Charlie Lopresti had what seemed like a career year in 2010. He won six stakes races, one more than he’d won in his first 17 years as a trainer, and three of those stakes were graded, triple Lopresti’s previous total. The 25 wins for the year was a career best, and Lopresti’s horses earned more than $1 million, roughly double his previous high.
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ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Scooter Dickey believes Flat Out has already done enough to show he belongs in the Breeders’ Cup Classic field. So while he would like his 5-year-old horse to improve upon runner-up finishes in both the Whitney Handicap and Woodward Stakes at Saratoga when he runs in Saturday’s $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, a victory is not paramount.
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Racing action on both sides of the country and both sides of the Atlantic Ocean this week should help determine the composition of the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
At Belmont, Cape Blanco makes his third straight U.S. start, and if the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic produces a performance similar to what Cape Blanco delivered winning the Man o’ War and Arlington Million in his first two trans-Atlantic trips, Cape Blanco could be favored in the Turf, regardless of what other horses might ship from Europe.
Big Drama vaulted to the top of the nation’s sprint division following his victory in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and despite having made just two starts over the next 11 months, the champ remains at the head of the class heading into Saturday’s Grade 1 Vosburgh, his final prep for a defense of his title in the 2011 Sprint on Nov. 5.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though she has won four of six starts, Streaker has floundered when it has mattered most. Following the second layoff of her career, Streaker returns in Friday’s $60,000 Dispute Stakes hoping to rejuvenate a once-promising career.
