MIAMI - The $500,000 Princess Rooney Handicap is the highlight of the six sprint stakes that make up Saturday's $1.75 million Summit of Speed program at Calder. But trainer Todd Pletcher has a different name for the Princess Rooney, a Grade 2 dash that has brought together by far the strongest field of filly-and-mare sprinters of the 2004 season.
"Basically this race is the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint," said Pletcher, who will send out Grade 1 winner Harmony Lodge.
MIAMI - By Saturday, the complexion of the $500,000 Smile Sprint Handicap will have changed dramatically from the time the race was drawn five days earlier. Alke and Hombre Rapido, among the 13 original entries for the co-feature on the $1.75 million Summit of Speed program, will both be scratched, eliminating the likely favorite, Alke, who along with Hombre Rapido figured to contest the early pace. Their defections will leave Champali as not only the horse to beat but perhaps the one to catch in the six-furlong Smile.
MIAMI - The last time Abbondanza and Bwana Charlie met they finished heads apart in the Hirsch Jacobs Stakes at Pimlico on the undercard for the Preakness Stakes. On Saturday, the two evenly matched 3-year-olds will square off again for a much richer payday in the $300,000 Carry Back Stakes, the best of four races on the undercard for Calder's Summit of Speed program.
For the past three months, Kitten's Joy and Prince Arch have reigned as the two best 3-year-old grass horses in Kentucky. Saturday they get tested against other top 3-year-olds on turf when they compete against Northeastern-based stakes winners Commendation and Artie Schiller in the Grade 3, $500,000 at Colonial Downs.
Prince Arch and Kitten's Joy have faced each other three times, with Kitten's Joy prevailing in the first two matchups. But in their last race, the Grade 3 Jefferson Cup on June 12, Prince Arch came out on top.
The Grade 3, $200,000 All Along Breeders' Cup Stakes at Colonial Downs could come down to a matchup between the speedy Sand Springs and the late-running Film Maker. The All Along is one of two stakes, along with the Virginia Oaks, that share the Saturday card with the Grade 3, $500,000 .
ELMONT, N.Y. - Millennium Dragon and Burning Roma receive high marks for their consistency in stakes, and that could give them the edge in Saturday's $100,000-added Poker Handicap at Belmont Park.
, who carries 120 pounds as the co-highweight with Burning Roma in the Grade 3 Poker, is the likely favorite in the mile turf race, which drew nine runners.
, a winner of $1.4 million, is a graded winner on the dirt and turf. When they last met in the Grade 2 Maker's Mark at Keeneland in April, Burning Roma finished second and Millennium Dragon was sixth.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It's not often that a trainer has to pick between running in a Grade 1 stakes or a New York-bred race, but Del Carroll II is facing that decision with Quantum Merit.
The Grade 1 Arlington Million probably will win out over the $100,000 West Point Handicap, a restricted race at Saratoga Aug. 15. The Million will be run at Arlington Park on Aug. 14.
Carroll said Quantum Merit, who became a graded winner in last Saturday's Grade 2 Firecracker Breeders' Cup Handicap at Churchill Downs, is in such good form it might be the right time to aim high.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The first six months of the year failed to yield a clear-cut leader among the nation's older fillies and mares. Azeri started strong, but has since fizzled. Storm Flag Flying has had her moments, as has Sightseek, but neither has put together a consistent campaign. Adoration and Star Parade have taken turns beating one another. Craig Dollase, the trainer of Elloluv, is hoping that the time is right for Elloluv to come back and make her mark.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The simplicity of jockey Omar Figueroa's strategy on Yessirgeneralsir in Saturday's $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup may prevent him from getting a case of post-time jitters.
The Gold Cup will be the richest race that Figueroa has ridden, but he is very familiar with his mount, the front-running Yessirgeneralsir, an invader from Texas.
On May 31, Figueroa, 20, scored a career milestone, winning his richest race aboard Yessirgeneralsir in the $300,000 Lone Star Handicap at Lone Star Park.
A charter flight transporting 18 horses from the mid-Atlantic region is scheduled to arrive Sunday in Minneapolis, Minn., for the July 17 Claiming Crown, the annual series for which pre-entries were released Thursday by Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn.