SAN MATEO, Calif. - Monday's Grade 3, $100,000 Seabiscuit Handicap at Bay Meadows stands as a special test for three of the seven entrants.
For probable favorite and highweight Reba's Gold, the test is whether he can approach last year's form, when he won two stakes and placed third in a pair of Grade 2 races. For Free Corona, who has been running at Turf Paradise, the Seabiscuit is a class test. And for 3-year-old Tiz a Coup, the race is his first against older horses.
MIAMI - A year ago, Best of the Rest defeated High Ideal by a hard-fought half-length in the $100,000 Memorial Day Handicap at Calder. Marty Wolfson, trainer of High Ideal, expected a rematch on Monday.
But after Best of the Rest was withdrawn from consideration for the race due to a quarter crack, Wolfson now clearly has the horse to beat.
MIAMI - A drying out racetrack and a fast pace added up to an easy victory for The Name's Bond in Saturday's $75,000 Simply Majestic Stakes at Calder. The Simply Majestic was originally scheduled for the turf but was moved to a "good" main track due to several days of steady rain.
A pair of 7 1/2-furlong stakes races open the turf course at Mountaineer Park on Monday night.
The Decoration Day Handicap for fillies and mares and the Memorial Day Handicap for 3-year-olds and up, both worth $75,000, will be run back- to-back as races 3 and 4 on the 10-race program.
Assuming the rain forecasted for earlier in the weekend doesn't force the stakes off the grass, Ms Isadorable and Guardianofthegate are the respective horses to beat in the Decoration Day and the Memorial Day.
The Indy 500 isn't the only sporting event in Indianapolis this weekend, as two stakes highlight the 12-race program on closing day at Indiana Downs's inaugural Thoroughbred meeting.
The $40,000 Checkered Flags has drawn a field of nine 3-year-old colts and geldings, headed by Lx Commander, who drops out of graded stakes for trainer Bernie Flint. In the $35,000 Veterans Stakes, seven Indiana-bred 3-year-olds will start.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Triage and Darkly Noon head a field of 10 Iowa-bred 3-year-old colts and geldings in Monday's $50,000-added Gray's Lake Stakes at Prairie Meadows.
Triage is the lone stakes winner in the Gray's Lake by virtue of his front-running nose score in the $50,000 Iowa Stallion Futurity here last September at Monday's six-furlong distance. Following the Stallion Futurity, Triage finished eighth in an open stakes, prompting trainer Ray Tracy to send the gelded son of Dr. Danzig to the sidelines for the remainder of the year.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Eleven runners were entered in the $35,000 Honor the Hero Stakes, a turf stakes at five furlongs.
A number of pace-pressing types are entered in the Honor the Hero, and the runner who may prove to be the controlling speed is Flying Supercon, a winner of two stakes at Turf Paradise this winter.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Eight shippers are among the 12 fillies and mares in Monday's $35,000 Scarlet Carnation Stakes.
Alison's Winner, owned by Frank Regalbuto and John Quagliata, is highweighted at 122 pounds in the six-furlong race, and will be spotting from six to 12 pounds to her rivals.
ELMONT, N.Y. - When entries were drawn Friday it was anybody's guess whether Sunday's $100,000-added Kingston Handicap at Belmont Park would be run on the turf. The Weather Channel was predicting a nasty day Saturday and clearing for Sunday.
Despite the dire forecast, the Kingston, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for New York-bred males, attracted a superior and overdrawn field. There are 10 runners in the main body of the race, plus two also-eligibles and four main-track-only horses.
