ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Sid Attard will be holding a very strong hand in Sunday’s $200,000 Play the King Stakes, when he runs the uncoupled trio of Jungle Wave, Signature Red, and Smokey Fire. The seven-furlong turf sprint is a prelude to the Sept. 19 Woodbine Mile, a $1 million event that has been a successful prep for the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Ti Township will have to overcome a handful of new shooters Saturday night when he defends his title in the $50,000 Red Earth at Remington Park. The 7 1/2-furlong turf race for Oklahoma-breds drew 12 horses, including Grade 3-winning filly Peach Brew and Southern California invader Skedee.
Ti Township was third in a $17,500 optional claimer at five furlongs on turf at Louisiana Downs in his last start Aug. 8, closing from next to last in the field of 12. It was the same kind of turf sprint he finished third in a year ago in his final start before the Red Earth.
Pay the Man, who needs just $1,049 to become the all-time leader in money won by an Ohio-bred female runner, will face six rivals Saturday at Thistledown in the $50,000 Rose DeBartolo Memorial, a nine-furlong race she has won the last three years. The only other horse to win the race three times was Tougaloo, the top statebred female in money earned.
Unless something unfortunate happens, Pay the Man should be the top money earner following the race, as the first six finishers will get checks.
Down Town Allen will put her four-race winning streak on the line against the lightly raced but extremely fast I Just Did It when the two 3-year-old West Virginia-bred fillies clash for the first time in the $50,000 Sylvia Bishop Memorial Stakes at Charles Town.
The seven-furlong Sylvia Bishop, named in honor of the nation's first African-American female trainer, who was a regular at Charles Town, is a local prep for the $75,000 West Virginia Division of Tourism on the West Virginia Breeders Classic card on Oct. 16.
Trainer Charlton Baker will follow a familiar pattern on Saturday when he attempts to win the New York Oaks at Finger Lakes for the third time in the last four runnings.
Baker, who wheeled back Gold for the Queen on two weeks' rest to win last year's Oaks at 8-1 odds, brings back Helyna's My Mom just 12 days after she last ran for Saturday's $75,000 race for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It is the type of Travers where a Kentucky Derby winner could be co-third choice on the morning line. It is the type of Travers where a horse making his second career start has his connections chirping. It is the type of Travers where a correct handicapping opinion could pay big dividends.
Saturday’s 141st renewal of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga is the type of race, in the opinion of Todd Pletcher, trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, where “I wouldn’t be surprised if anybody won it.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When you have a horse who has won six consecutive races in distances from six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, one would figure to be quite confident entering the next race.
But when the field for that next race includes the reigning Horse of the Year, it’s a little difficult to be too confident. Such is the case for trainer Todd Pletcher, who will send out Life At Ten against Rachel Alexandra in Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga.
The Personal Ensign will go as race 10 on an 11-race card that begins at 1 p.m. Eastern.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Mike Puype does not have anything in the Pacific Classic on Saturday at Del Mar, but he is hoping to bookend the day’s other stakes, first with Bruce’s Dream in the Del Mar Mile, and then with Hard Bill in the Grade 1, $300,000 Pat O’Brien, which goes as the 10th race on the 11-race card.
