Posts Tagged ‘Super Derby’

Even with no Grade 1 races offered this weekend, there are still a number of competitive graded stakes to be run in Kentucky and New York. Keeneland closes its meet on Saturday with the running of the G3 Fayette, for three-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles over the Polytrack surface. Vying for favoritism will be Blame, coming off a second-place effort in Louisiana’s G2 Super Derby, and the Shug McGaughey-trained Parading, who comes back to Kentucky after a California campaign that yielded off-the-board finishes in three Grade 1 events. Parading won the Ben Ali (G3) this year at Keeneland’s spring meet. Medjool and Giant Oak have scratched.

Churchill Downs opens its doors on Sunday and the spotlight will be on juveniles in two Grade 3 stakes, the Pocahontas, for fillies, and the Iroquois, for colts and geldings. Both races are one-turn miles on the dirt. There are no stand-outs in the contentious Pocahontas field, but look for good showings from Sassy Image, Tiz Miz Sue and Happy Week. Running Bride is three-for-three at Hoosier Park which also makes her a factor here. 

The Iroquois is also wide open; the morning line favorite at 4-1 is Dublin, trained by Wayne Lukas. Dublin won the Hopeful (G1) but ran fifth out of six starters as the odds-on favorite in the Champagne (G1). Uh Oh Bango and Three Day Rush are coming off minor stakes wins.

Racing changed venues in New York this week and the Aqueduct graded stakes schedule includes Sunday’s G3 Long Island Handicap, for fillies and mares, three years old and up at 1 ½ miles on grass. In the field of seven, Tom Albertrani’s trainee, Criticism, is the one to beat. The 5-year-old daughter of Machiavellian has three wins this year, all performed in wire-to-wire fashion. Most recently, she finished second to Pure Clan in the prestigious Flower Bowl Invitational Handicap. This is expected to be Criticism’s final race before heading to the breeding shed.

The only North American Grade 1 action of the weekend takes place north of the border at Woodbine on Sunday when seasoned turf specialists compete in a pair of rich stakes: the $750,000 Northern Dancer Turf presented by VTECH, at 1 1/2 miles and the $1-million Woodbine Mile over eight furlongs.

Both races will be shown exclusively on TVG, the Northern Dancer scheduled at 4:34 p.m. Eastern and the Woodbine Mile at 5:42 p.m.

While the Woodbine Mile offers the richest purse, the Northern Dancer comes up as a more competitive field in my book. Each race has attracted a field of 10.

Champs Elysees, a 6-year-old son of Danehill, bids for a repeat in the Northern Dancer, but the competition is rich in talent and experience. Marchfield, a son of A.P. Indy, just defeated Champs Elysees in the Grade 2 Sky Classic Stakes at Woodbine going 1 3/8 miles on Aug. 23. Just as Well, another won of A.P. Indy, made a run at turf division leader Gio Ponti but could do no better than second in last month’s Grade 1 Arlington Million. Marsh Side won last year’s Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine at the same 12-furlong distance, and the globe-trotting 7-year-old German-bred Quijano was second, beaten a nose by Champs Elysees in last year’s Northern Dancer.

The Woodbine Mile features a rematch of last year’s one-two finishers, Rahy’s Attorney and Ventura, but Bribon, winner of this year’s Metropolitan Mile Handicap on the Belmont Park dirt, makes it interesting as he tries turf for the first time. Another horse that can’t be counted out is the 3-year-old Grand Slam colt, Grand Adventure, unbeaten in three starts on the Woodbine Turf but 10th in his only other race, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita last fall.

Ventura, a 5-year-old mare by Chester House, has compiled a remarkable record of consistency for trainer Bobby Frankel and owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms. She has finished first or second in 15 of 18 lifetime starts, and while her best distance may be seven furlongs, she is a Grade 1 winner on turf going a mile.

The Woodbine stakes are far from being the only races worth watching. Saturday’s Futurity (4:43 p.m.) and Matron (5:15 p.m.) on HRTV and TVG are important 2-year-old races, and the same afternoon’s $750,000 Super Derby (6:12 p.m., HRTV) marks the return of UAE Derby winner Regal Ransom for the red-hot Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor.