INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With a failed turf experiment behind him, High Standards returns to doing what he does best in Saturday's $150,000 Laz Barrera Memorial Stakes at Hollywood Park - sprinting on the main track.
is unbeaten in four starts on the main track, including two stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita earlier this year - the Baldwin Stakes, which was switched from turf to dirt on March 5, and the San Pedro Stakes on March 26.
ALBANY, Calif. - First Draft, Marla Bay, and Pickle, who ran one-two-three within a neck of each other in the Miss America Handicap at Bay Meadows on April 9, renew their rivalry Saturday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Yerba Buena Breeders' Cup Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.
The three met once before, in a March allowance at Bay Meadows, also finishing one-two-three, with Pickle beating First Draft and Marla Bay third. But a pair of new faces in Saturday's 1 1/16-mile turf race and the prospect of a very fast pace make it unlikely that the same three will form another trifecta.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer John Hennig doesn't have an easy answer as to why Miracle Man ran so poorly in the Derby Trial.
Perhaps it was the added distance. Miracle Man won his first three starts, which ranged from five to seven furlongs, with such ease that the one-mile stakes at Churchill Downs was a logical progression.
Maybe the class hike for Miracle Man's first stakes appearance was too ambitious. ran with the pack in the early stages before flattening out to finish fourth, 20 1/2 lengths behind Don't Get Mad.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Five-furlong turf races for young horses primarily attract two types of runners: dirt sprinters with little grass form and turf horses whose experience has come mostly in routes.
Little Hussy breaks the mold, having raced three times on turf, including twice in grass sprints. That important grass experience will likely make her the favorite over stakes winners Angel Trumpet and Flying Circle in Saturday's five-furlong Open Mind Stakes over the Churchill Downs turf course.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Liz on Polk Street wouldn't have been able to keep up with her mother, the Grade 1-winning mare Silver Maiden, and in two Grade 3 stakes tries she has finished fourth and seventh. But Liz on Polk Street has enough ability - and the right running style - to win the Fit for a Queen Stakes on Saturday at Arlington.
Races for 3-year-old fillies do not get much quicker than the one Ketchmewhereyoucan exits, which makes her look imposing Saturday in the $50,000 Dixie Miss at Louisiana Downs.
Ketchmewhereyoucan invades from Lone Star Park, where she finished second in the Wafare Farm, a six-furlong race that went in a blazing 1:08.60. She will travel the same distance in the Dixie Miss, which drew seven 3-year-old fillies, including Ms Seneca Rock, who is a statebred stakes winner, and Magnolia Belle, who has stepped up her game since the addition of blinkers in March.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Same race, same trainer - different horse.
Randy Mayfield has won two of the last three runnings of the $50,000 JEH Stallion Station Stakes with Coastalota, but with his former stable star now retired, he will have a new JEH shooter at Lone Star Park on Saturday.
Expectant Diva will start as one of the favorites in the 6 1/2-furlong race for Texas-bred fillies and mares. In her last start, she rallied for a neck win in a six-furlong allowance here, covering the distance in a sharp 1:10.60.
MIAMI - The second leg of Calder's Senior Triple, Saturday's $50,000 Maryland My Maryland Stakes, may mirror the middle leg of the real Triple Crown in more ways than one.
The Senior Triple is a series of three stakes on the same days as the Triple Crown races and at the same distances but the series is for 3-year-olds and up.
With four sprint stakes wins to her credit, Noon Win has earned a reputation as the fastest 3-year-old filly on dirt in Ohio. The question to be answered in Saturday's $45,000 Tomboy Stakes at River Downs is whether she can stretch her speed to 1 1/16 miles on turf.
The Tomboy, which launches the track's stakes season, is traditionally a tough read. With River Downs having the only turf course in Ohio, there are limited opportunities for statebred fillies to try the grass prior to the Tomboy, unless they do so out of state against open company.
Eight colts and geldings were entered for the 10,000 Lakes Stakes, a $40,000 stakes that is Canterbury Park's first added-money event of the season for statebreds.
Conspicuous by his absence will be Crocrock, the state champion sprinter who won this event twice and was never worse than second in the last four runnings of the 10,000 Lakes. Crocrock sustained a fatal injury when prepping for this race at Prairie Meadows last month.