ARCADIA, Calif. – First Dude, sixth in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 5 in his first start for trainer Bob Baffert, will be heavily favored to win the second race of his career in Saturday’s eighth race at Santa Anita, a $56,000 allowance race over 1 1/16 miles.
“I thought we could get him in a spot where we could win a race,” Baffert said. “I’m still trying to figure out his style.”
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – David Fawkes trains reigning sprint champion Big Drama, but it will be another potential sprint star in his care that the Florida-based trainer will be sending out in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes already is being touted as wide-open, and there is a possibility a full gate of 14 could contest the annual spring showcase at Keeneland next Saturday, April 16.
But if past performances and company kept and many of the other factors that go into determining a rough pecking order among Kentucky Derby contenders are to be considered, there is little doubt that Santiva deserves to be the favorite for the $750,000 Blue Grass.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – “Throw a blanket over them” is a racetrack phrase that fits the Grade 3, $150,000 Comely Stakes, a one-turn mile that leads off Saturday’s all-stakes pick four with a guaranteed pool of $500,000.
Post time for the Comely is 4:09 p.m. Eastern.
Five of the seven 3-year-old fillies have earned virtually identical Beyer Figure tops, and Ava K., Her Smile, Hot Summer, R Holiday Moon, and Royal Sighting have all been on the early lead in at least one of their last two starts.
ARCADIA, Calif. − Unzip Me has earned the 127-pound assignment she will carry in Saturday’s $100,000 Las Cienegas Handicap at Santa Anita.
The 5-year-old mare has five wins in six starts over about 6 1/2 furlongs on Santa Anita’s hillside turf course, the same course as the Grade 3 Las Cienegas. She has won two stakes on the hillside this year and will be heavily favored in the Las Cienegas.
The 8-year-old millionaire Fabulous Strike, once one of the best sprinters in the country, will try to resurrect his career when he faces five other older sprinters in a six-furlong allowance Saturday night at Penn National Race Course.
OPELOUSAS, La. – Alabama-breds will have the spotlight on Saturday night at Evangeline Downs as 3-year-olds that hail from the land of the Crimson Tide will line up for the inaugural running of the Camellia Stakes. A field of six will go six furlongs in quest of the $50,000 purse.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Tampa Bay Downs, the Florida Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders’, and the Tampa division of the Horseman’s Benevolent and Protective Association will present the eighth renewal of the Florida Cup, six $75,000 stakes restricted to Florida-breds, here on Saturday.
Trip for A. J., winner of the $300,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf earlier this season and a fast-closing fourth in the Grade 3 Honey Fox last time out, tops a small but talent-laden field in the mile and a sixteenth Turf Distaff for older fillies and mares.
Ben’s Cat and Heros Reward, the winners of the past two runnings of the Mister Diz Stakes, will square off for the third time since last August when the five-furlong, $75,000 turf sprint for Maryland-breds shifts from summer to spring Saturday at Pimlico.
Formerly run in July, August, or early September since 1994, the Mister Diz is now part of Pimlico’s spring stakes package and the first scheduled grass stakes of the season in Maryland.
