INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A streak of four consecutive appearances in graded stakes will end when Supreme Summit starts in a $60,000 allowance race at Hollywood Park on Friday evening.
The seven-furlong race is designed as only a temporary interruption to running in top-class races. Owner Joe Lacombe and trainer Mike Puype consider the allowance to be a prep race for the more lucrative $250,000 Triple Bend Handicap on July 2.
Bellamy Jones returns to the statebred ranks and horses of his own age for the $84,000 Snack on Saturday at Indiana Downs. The 3-year-old Bellamy Jones will face eight others in the six-furlong race.
His trainer, Bob Gorham, has three of the nine entrants in the Snack, but his filly My Bellamy was cross entered in the Ellen’s Lucky Star, which was to be run Friday.
The $75,000 Cyclones Handicap at Prairie Meadows brings together eight of the best Iowa-bred geldings in training to compete at 1 1/16 miles.
The focus will be on the 6-year-old Kate’s Main Man, who was victorious in Oaklawn Park’s $100,000 Essex Handicap in February and has won $325,559 of his $486,207 in earnings at Prairie Meadows.
Populist Politics, a Triple Crown nominee who was undefeated as a 2-year-old, finds himself not in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, but the $50,000 Rajun Cajun against fellow 3-year-old Louisiana-breds at Evangeline Downs. The Tom Amoss-trained Populist Politics will square off against a solid group of eight rivals at seven furlongs.
Zoobilee will be seeking her sixth straight win Saturday night in the $70,000 Val’s Fortune at Delta Downs. The 400-yard race is a restricted Grade 2 for 3-year-olds and up bred in Louisiana.
Zoobilee’s streak began at Evangeline in November, when she won an allowance. She proceeded to win four consecutive stakes at Fair Grounds, Louisiana Downs, and Delta, one of them over males in December.
Jockey Jacky Martin qualified three runners to the Grade 1 Ruidoso Derby for Quarter Horses, and will be aboard Prospect to the Top when the $702,650 finale is run Saturday. The purse is a record for the 400-yard race, which serves as the first of three major derbies this meet at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico.
Prospect to the Top was the second-fastest qualifier for the Ruidoso Derby behind Giorgino, who was also ridden in the trials by Martin. He also qualified Jd Baccarat.
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ELMONT, N.Y. – Though he hasn’t yet won a graded stakes, it seems like just a matter of time for Trappe Shot, who figures to vie for favoritism with the entry of D’ Funnybone and This Ones for Phil in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 True North Handicap at six furlongs at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When Corey Nakatani rides Kentucky Derby runner-up Nehro in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, it will be just his third mount in the third leg of the Triple Crown. The others were Green Alligator, who finished 10th in 1991, and Buckle Down Ben, who finished seventh in 2001.
Nehro is trained by Steve Asmussen, and that duo has teamed up to win at a 30 percent clip since the beginning of 2010.
