Catlaunch will carry 126 pounds and spot his rivals 10 to 16 pounds in the $50,000 Michael F. Rowland Memorial at Thistledown on Saturday.
It looks like there will be a mad dash for second money in the six-furlong Rowland, in which Catlaunch will try to defend his title.
MIAMI - Between them, Devilish Lady and Blue Eyed Sweetie have won six stakes. That number will likely increase to seven by mid-afternoon on Saturday after the pair square off in the $55,000 Reappeal, a one-mile overnight stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Get Serious got little out of his first start, a disappointing effort his camp hopes to quickly forgive and forget.
The 7-year-old Get Serious was one of the heroes of Monmouth Park last summer, winning a trio of Grade 3 turf stakes: the Monmouth, the Oceanport, and the Red Bank. His only loss here last year came in the Grade 1 United Nations Stakes where he gamely set the pace in a race beyond his distance scope at 1 3/8 miles.
OCEANPORT, N.J. − The New Jersey boys of summer will assemble once again for the $65,000 John J. Reilly Handicap, even though some are now decidedly long in the tooth.
The Reilly shares top billing Saturday at Monmouth Park with the $70,000 Lamplighter for 3-year-olds on the turf. The 12-race card kicks off the Memorial Day weekend, which includes cards Sunday and Monday. First post is 12:50 p.m. on all three days.
A six-furlong race for statebreds, the Reilly is an early-season fixture at Monmouth and the first major event for New Jersey-breds since last fall.
A new set of shoes have helped Louisiana Senator burst to the top of the Quarter Horse charts this year. To retain his No. 1 ranking among the nation’s older horses, he will have to defeat an elite field Saturday night in the Grade 1, $250,000 Remington Park Championship.
The 440-yard invitational is part of program of seven stakes that includes the Grade 1, $1,029,950 Heritage Place Futurity. The races make for the richest card of the Remington meet that will close on Monday.
ALTOONA, Iowa – With the June 24-25 Iowa Festival of Racing approaching, Saturday evening’s stakes at Prairie Meadows, the $60,000 Wild Rose and the $60,000 Jim Rasmussen Memorial, serve as the local preps for two of the Festival’s key events.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tom Proctor isn’t what you would call radical, even slightly liberal. But that doesn’t mean he won’t step outside of the box once in a while, as he will do Saturday at Churchill Downs when he pits his star turf mare, Keertana, against nine male rivals in the 74th running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Louisville Handicap.
“We’ll see how smart I am, huh?” Proctor said with a laugh.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s a Friday night in Louisville. The crowd is ready to party. The lines at the bar are 10-deep. The music is soaring. Young men and women in their best clubbing clothes are crowded around the stage as the singer from a local band belts out Weezer’s famously plaintive refrain:
“Say it ain’t so-a-woah-woah!”
It’s a sentiment that racing purists might agree with. Because this scene isn’t from Louisville’s hottest nightclub. It’s from Churchill Downs, the sport’s most iconic racetrack.
