Posts Tagged ‘woodbine’

Gone Astray will be a short-priced favorite to win his third consecutive graded stakes Saturday when he takes on five 3-year-olds in the Grade 3 Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct Saturday, one of four graded races across the country this weekend—all on Saturday.

One of those opponents is Haynesfield, a three-time stakes winner over the Aqueduct inner track last winter who has won one of two restricted New York-bred stakes since returning to the races this fall for trainer Steve Asmussen.

Gone Astray, carrying the Phipps Stable silks, is coming off victories in the Pennsylvania and Ohio Derbies—both Grade 2 events. The late-maturing son of Dixie Union had only won two of his previous 10 starts for trainer Shug McGaughey, He carries top weight of 122 pounds, conceding from four to seven pounds to his rivals.

Post time for the nine-furlong Discovery is 3:44 p.m., and the race will be shown on both HRTV and TVG (all times Eastern).

The Grade 3 Kennedy Road at Woodbine has attracted a field of 10 going six furlongs on the all-weather Polytrack surface. Jungle Wave is the morning-line favorite, but don’t overlook Field Commission, who closed with a rush last out to win the Nearctic Stakes on the Woodbine turf. Earlier this year, the Danny Vella-trained son of Service Stripe earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 105 while winning the Grade 3 Vigil on Woodbine’s Polytrack. Another contender is the very accomplished El Brujo, who’s won six of 13 for trainer Malcom Pierce and won the Grade 3 Perryville on Keeneland’s Polytrack in his last out.

The Kennedy Road will be shown on TVG at 4:23 p.m.

A field of nine graded stakes veteran fillies and mares go postward in Churchill Downs’ Cardinal Handicap Saturday, a Grade 3 going nine furlongs on turf. Acoma is the 121-pound high weight and morning line favorite on the strength of her four previous graded stakes wins and seven of 13 lifetime victories. Saturday is Calvin Borel bobblehead day, though, and Borel is a very live mount for trainer Graham Motion, Leamington. She comes off a dismal effort on a boggy turf course in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Handicap at Belmont Park but should find Saturday’s firm turf much more to her liking.

The Cardinal can be seen on HRTV at 4:37 p.m.

Saturday’s final graded stakes is the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue, a prep for the Hollywood Futurity. Bob Baffert, enjoying an exceptional year, has two of the race’s leading contenders in Indian Firewater and Maceo. A field of eight juveniles has been entered for the seven furlong race, which goes at 7:05 p.m. It will be shown on TVG.

This weekend is the predictable “calm after the storm”, and though there are plenty of restricted stakes on the country’s racing agenda, only one track has an American graded stakes on its schedule. Churchill Downs will run complimentary stakes; Saturday’s card features the G2 Mrs. Revere for 3-year-old fillies, and its counterpart, the Commonwealth Turf (G3) for 3-year-old colts and geldings, will be Sunday’s feature. Both races are 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

The Mrs. Revere has a full field going postward, including five fillies from Keeneland’s G3 Valley View which was so over-subscribed that it was run in two divisions. The winner of one of the divisions, Bluegrass Princess, is competing here, as is Miss Keller and Keertana, the runner-up and third-place finishers of the other division. Hot Cha Cha and Miss World are the fillies to beat, though; they’re coming out of the more prestigious G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup, also run at Keeneland last month. Hot Cha Cha won the QEII by over four lengths, and previous to that, was victorious in the G3 Pucker Up at Arlington Park. Miss World posted an upset win in the G1 Garden City before running fourth in the Queen Elizabeth.

Get Stormy comes into the Commonwealth Turf with a three-race winning streak, including his last out, Keeneland’s G3 Bryan Station. The son of Stormy Atlantic will be challenged by the likes of Proceed Bee who most recently won the G3 Hawthorne Derby. Hot trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has two entries here—Street Move and the Darley-owned Florentino.

Aqueduct had carded the G3 Stuyvesant for this weekend but it was canceled due to lack of entries; it will not be rescheduled this year.

While not nearly the weekend of racing the last two were, this week holds the distinction of being the last official Breeders’ Cup Win-And-You’re-In contests. All three big races at Woodbine will be televised on ESPN 2 and TVG with early favorite Marsh Side being challenged by Jukebox Jury and offering Champs Elysees in the Canadian International. This $2 million Grade I race ends a strong day of racing at the Canadian track that includes the Grade II $500,000 Nearctic Stakes and the Grade I $1,000,000 E. P. Taylor Stakes for Fillies and Mares.

The other two Win-And-You’re-In contests are the Spend a Buck Handicap (III) at Calder and the Emirates Champion Stakes (I) at Newmarket. The Spend a Buck can be found on HRTV and the Emirates Champion Stakes will be part of this weekend’s ESPN 2 package on a delay.

The other major race this weekend takes place at Keeneland where three year old fillies led by Gozzip Girl will compete. The $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup can be seen on TVG.

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.

 

By Ray Paulick

Stone Farm’s Wanderin Boy was euthanized after breaking down at the top of the stretch in Saturday’s Cigar Mile at Aqueduct and James and Alice Sapara’s Demoiselle winner Springside will be taken to the New Bolton hospital in Pennsylvania after pulling up from her 9 ½-length victory with a fracture of her right front pastern.

For more on the Cigar Mile, won via disqualification by Tale of Ekati, go the www.paulickreport.com.

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