MIAMI − Trying to decide which is the best race on Saturday’s Florida Million undercard at Calder is not an easy proposition. That’s because the card is filled with so many good races and exciting matchups.
The richest of the seven undercard races on Florida Million Day is the $150,000 Elmer Heubeck Handicap for fillies and mares, which pits Trip for A.J., the 3-year-old division leader, against Amazing, the top mare.
Trainer Wilson Brown could have gone a couple of different race directions with multiple stakes winner Smiles Ahead, including running him in last weekend’s $100,000 Clever Trevor. But he has elected to take his best shot with one of the most accomplished 2-year-olds at Remington Park, and will start him instead in Saturday night’s $50,000 Oklahoma Stallion Stakes.
The six-furlong race is one of two restricted stakes on the card, the other being the $50,000 Oklahoma Stallion Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. It is led by Miss Kipling.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – There’s more at stake for American Runaway in Saturday night’s Texas Classic Quarter Horse Futurity at Lone Star Park than just the race’s $1,036,612 purse.
“I think if he can win this race, he’ll have a pretty good shot for champion 2-year-old colt,” said Paul Jones, who trains American Runaway for the partnership of Sammy and Johnny Martinez and Bobby Cox.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Is it contradictory to suggest a Grade 1 race at Hollywood Park represents a drop in class?
Not for Treat Gently, the East Coast-based mare running 1 1/2 miles Saturday against seven evenly matched West Coast males in the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup.
Treat Gently will try to become the first filly or mare since 1991 to win the Turf Cup, and she chose the right year to try. Her rivals are a combined 0 for 31 in Grade 1 and Grade 2 races.
MIAMI – One week after winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs with Big Drama, trainer David Fawkes finds himself back at home with the other big horse in his barn, the multiple graded stakes winner Duke of Mischief, who figures to be odds-on if he starts to capture Saturday’s $150,000 Carl G. Rose Classic, main event on the annual Florida Million day card at Calder.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Garrett Gomez was scheduled to see an orthopedic specialist in Los Angeles on Thursday regarding his injured right shoulder, which has kept the star jockey from riding since he was aboard Blame in their dramatic victory over Zenyatta in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last weekend at Churchill Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Barclay Tagg and Kiaran McLaughlin have had their proverbial moments in the sun at Churchill Downs. The New York-based trainers ship in some of their better stock during peak times on the Kentucky racing calendar, and more often than not, those horses figure as major contenders in stakes events.
Catch a Thief, who has put up back-to-back 90-plus Beyer Speed Figures sprinting against open company in New York, stretches out to a mile when she faces Maryland-breds for the first time in the $50,000 Twixt at Laurel Park.
Based at Monmouth Park with trainer Tim Hills, Catch a Thief earned a career-best 98 Beyer winning a high-priced optional claimer at Belmont two starts ago and followed up by finishing second, beaten just a half-length, in the 6 1/2-furlong Catinca on Oct. 27.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Changing Skies, an Irish-bred import who has won or placed in all seven of her U.S. starts, will be a clear favorite in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Long Island Handicap.
Changing Skies concedes five to nine pounds to six rivals in the 54th running of the Long Island, which is the last graded turf stakes for fillies and mares in New York this year.
Changing Skies has won on firm, good, and yielding turf for trainer Bill Mott, including the Grade 3 Very One at 1 3/8 miles, and the Waya at the Long Island’s 1 1/2-mile distance.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Southdale will stake his claim for the Sovereign Award as this year’s Canadian champion older male Saturday at Woodbine Racetrack in the $150,000 Autumn Stakes.
Southdale notched a pair of Grade 3 stakes victories here this year, the Durham Cup and the Eclipse, which was contested at the 1 1/16-mile distance of the Autumn. Last time, in the slow-paced Durham Cup, he rallied inside from mid-pack to win the 1 1/8-mile race going away.
