WEEKEND STAKES: WHERE TO WATCH brought to you KBC Horse Supplies
For so many years, the traditional opening day stakes at Churchill has been the Derby Trial, one week prior to the Kentucky Derby. The race isn’t usually considered a Derby prep, but with a $200,000 purse and Grade 3 status, it could be a last-ditch effort to get into the 20-horse Derby starting gate. Saturday’s Derby Trial has two entrants that could make the Derby field with a win—Pleasant Prince and Eightyfiveinafifty. Pleasant Prince lost the Florida Derby by just a nose to Ice Box, and in the Apr. 10 Blue Grass, he finished seventh out of nine. Owner Ken Ramsey and trainer Wesley Ward thought that he didn’t handle the Polytrack surface at Keeneland, so a change back to the dirt should work in Pleasant Prince’s favor. The curiously named Eightyfiveinafifty comes off a win in the G3 Bay Shore.
A contentious field of a dozen has entered for Keeneland’s closing day feature, the G2 Fifth Third Elkhorn at 1 ½ miles on the turf. Expansion, at 4-1, is the morning line favorite, while Bearpath and Musketier are at 5-1, and Timeless Fashion and Sudden War are both 6-1. Expansion ended his 2009 campaign with a win in the G2 Red Smith Handicap and in his lone start thus far in 2010, finished fifth in the G2 Mac Diarmida.
At Aqueduct on Saturday, six starters will vie in the G3 Withers, for 3-year-olds going a mile. D’Funnybone, a four-time G2 sprint winner (seven furlongs or less) will try two turns for the first time since the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile where he finished last.
Lone Star Park has carded the G3 Texas Mile on Saturday. Entrants include defending champ Jonesboro, whose most recent outing was a third-place finish in the Oaklawn Park Handicap (G2), Mythical Power, winner of last year’s Lone Star Derby, and Euroears, a winner of three consecutive sprint stakes at Fair Grounds in 2008, making his two-turn debut.
Finally, on Saturday, the San Francisco Mile will be held at Golden Gate Fields. While this turf contest looks like a rematch between Bold Chieftain and Monterey Jazz, who finished one-two in a recent allowance race, it’s likely that Monterey Jazz will go in the Inglewood Handicap at Hollywood Park on Sunday. Other likely starters that will face the 7-year-old Bold Chieftain, who is looking for his first graded stakes win, are Gallant Son, Massone and Golden Balls.
Monterey Jazz’s stiffest competition in the Inglewood Handicap (G3, 1 1/16 miles on the turf) is Compari, the likely betting choice. While Monterey Jazz is three-for-three on the Hollywood turf, Compari will be gunning for his seventh consecutive stakes win.
In South Florida, Calder’s opening day feature is the G3 Miami Mile Handicap, for 3-year-olds and up on the turf. Local trainer Marty Wolfson has a trio of entries including the 119-lb. highweight, Jet Propulsion. He’s also entered Motovato and Stones River. Also among those going postward is Phil Gleaves-trained Mambo Meister, weighted at 118 lbs., and Pleasant Strike, from Todd Pletcher’s barn.
Tags: aqueduct, Calder Race Course, churchill downs, Derby Trial Stakes, Elkhorn Stakes, golden gate fields, Hollywood Park, Inglewood Handicap, KBC Horse Supplies, Keeneland, lone star park, Miami Mile Handicap, San Francisco Mile, Texas Mile Stakes, Weekend Stakes: Where to Watch, Withers Stakes