Three of the five Win and You’re In stakes have been run for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, which has been upgraded from Grade 2 to Grade 1 status this year.
State of Play took the Grade 2 With Anticipation at Saratoga, to remain unbeaten in two starts for trainer Graham Motion and owner Team Valor International the same connections as Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom.
Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., has scheduled 25 stakes races for its 2011-12 meet offering approximately $2.6 million in total purses, the track said on Wednesday.
The purse total is a $175,000 increase over the 2010-11 meet, due to $25,000 increases to seven stakes, including the $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes, a Grade 3 race restricted to 3-year-olds scheduled for Feb. 4 that is often used as a prep for Tampa Bay’s most prominent Kentucky Derby stepping-stone, the Tampa Bay Derby.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Stay Thirsty and Uncle Mo both drew post 3 in their respective races for Saturday’s stakes extravaganza at Belmont Park.
Stay Thirsty will break from post 3 in a seven-horse field drawn for the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup. His primary challenger, Flat Out, will break from post 6. Others entered include Ice Box, Rodman, Drosselmeyer, A. U. Miner, and Birdrun.
A $75,000 stakes at Delaware Park might seem an unconventional path to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, but for Grade 1 Spinaway winner Grace Hall, the race is perfectly logical.
Unbeaten in two starts, Grace Hall will run Saturday at Delaware in the Blue Hen Stakes, an ungraded route at a mile and 70 yards that trainer Anthony Dutrow considers ideal.
Cambina is a multiple stakes winner against 3-year-old fillies this year, a season highlighted so far by a dead-heat win in the Grade 1 American Oaks at Hollywood Park in July.
Trainer Jeff Bonde thinks she can accomplish more, beginning in Saturday’s $250,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita. If Cambina runs well against older fillies and mares in the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon, Bonde will target the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf over 1 3/8 miles on turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.
The first meeting of Alaura Michele and Slip Along Band, who are leading American-based candidates for the Grade 2, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 4, could come Sunday at Belmont Park. Both are possible for the Grade 3, $100,000 Miss Grillo.
Alaura Michele is 2 for 2 on turf, with her biggest win on the surface coming last out in the P.G. Johnson at Saratoga on Aug. 31.
Hot Hitter will be favored to win his second stakes of 2011 in Friday’s $168,500 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Breeders’ Derby at Los Alamitos, a race that also includes three runners owned by Vessels Stallion Farm.
Hot Hitter won the Governor’s Cup Derby at Los Alamitos in July, but was a troubled second in a division of the PCQHRA Breeders’ Derby over 400 yards on Sept. 16. Hot Hitter was bumped at the start and finished a half-length behind Enjoy the Walk, who set the fastest qualifying time of 19.39 seconds.
The newly inaugurated Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint finds itself in a position similar to the Juvenile Turf. Albeit a rich, attractive race, it is still “little brother” relative to the Juvenile.
It lacks the history, purse, and prestige of the latter race and therefore seems likely to draw mostly 2-year-olds with distant limitations or those simply too far behind schedule to be prepared for a 1 1/16-mile race like the Juvenile.
ANDERSON, Ind. – Preakness winner Shackleford was assigned post 7 and Caleb’s Posse drew alongside in post 6 when a field of eight 3-year-olds was assembled Wednesday for the Grade 2, $500,000 Indiana Derby, the Hoosier Park showcase to be run Saturday for the 17th time.
Trainer Josie Carroll plans to be represented in three of the four stakes here at Woodbine this weekend with Notacloudinthesky entered in Saturday’s $125,000 Victorian Queen, Valli With a Vow in the same afternoon’s Avowal, and James Street on target for Sunday’s $150,000 Durham Cup.
Notacloudinthesky looms as the probable favorite in the field of seven for the Victorian Queen, a six-furlong race for Ontario-sired 2-year-old fillies.
