Sunday’s Perfect Pick pro football contest has a carryover pool of $4,000. Entry begins at 10:00 a.m. with a deadline of noon. Watch all the games at Canterbury Park….and do yourself a favor. Check out the Nacho Grande at The Homestretch Cafe.
There is plenty of simulcast racing action all weekend. Here is a preview from Robert Kieckhefer of UPI.
UPI Horse Racing Weekend Preview
Laurel Park
Saturday’s $350,000 Frank J. DeFrancis Memorial Dash drew a proven and competitive field of nine, featuring the likes of Palace, Stallwalkin’ Dude, Spring to the Sky, and Trouble Kid. The event is 6 furlongs on the main track. Palace, a multiple graded stakes winner, has struggled this year but comes off a confidence-building win in the Hudson Handicap at Belmont. Stallwalkin’ Dude was third in the Grade I Vosburgh at Belmont in September and bounces right back from an eighth-place showing in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, beaten only about 3 lengths. Spring to the Sky was victorious in the Laurel Dash two starts back. Trouble Kid has won four straight races, dating to his maiden-breaker at Parx in July and including the Grade III Gallant Bob, also at Parx. He makes his first start on the New York circuit. Shakopee native Alex Canchari has the mount on 30 to 1 Sir Rockport for trainer Tim Ice.
Four $100,000 sprints, including the Grade III James F. Lewis III Stakes for 2-year-olds, support the DeFrancis Dash.
Aqueduct
Tommy Macho pressed the pace in Wednesday’s $150,000, Grade III Discovery Handicap for 3-year-olds, took over when asked and drew off to win by 4 1/4 lengths. Madefromlucky was second and the favorite, Ocean Knight, faded from the lead to get home third. Tommy Macho, a Macho Uno colt, ran 9 furlongs on a sloppy, sealed track in 1:51.67 with Javier Castellano up. Todd Pletcher saddled the exacta. “He’s a horse that’s continued to train well,” Pletcher said of Tommy Macho, who earlier finished third in the West Virginia Derby. “He’s developed physically into a stronger fall 3-year-old than he was in the spring and you always like to see that.”
Saturday’s $250,000, Grade III Red Smith Handicap is 11 furlongs on turf likely to be less than firm. The 10 signed on include Mr Speaker, winner of the Grade II Commonwealth Turf Cup at 9 furlongs over the Laurel lawn two starts back; St. Alban’s Boy, who comes off a victory in the Laurel Turf Cup at 12 panels; dual graded stakes winner Kaigun; and the first two finishers from the Grade III Sycamore at Keeneland last month, Holiday Star and Charming Kitten.
Sunday’s feature at the Big A is the $125,000 Staten Island Division of the New York Stallion Stakes. Fillies and mares will go 7 furlongs on the dirt.
Churchill Downs
Saturday’s $200,000, Grade II Mrs. Revere Stakes was so popular the entry box wasn’t big enough for all takers. Fourteen 3-year-old fillies are listed for the 1 1/16-miles turf race with another four on the also-eligible list. The morning-line favorite is Partisan Politics, with Tammy the Torpedo, Onus, Isabella Sings and Celestine also drawing some attention. Partisan Politics, a 3-year-old More Than Ready filly, enters the fray fresh from a win in the Pebbles Stakes at Belmont Park, where she faced some of these same rivals. Tammy the Torpedo finished seventh in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and wasn’t seen again until a month ago, when she won an allowance race at Belmont. Onus won the Grade III Commonwealth Oaks at Laurel.
Del Mar
The Stanley Cup champion Chicago Black Hawks aren’t off to the best of starts this season but that doesn’t affect the chances of Toews On Ice in Saturday’s $100,000, Grade III Bob Hope Stakes for 2-year-olds going 7 furlongs. The Archarcharch colt, trained by Bob Baffert for his A-list clients Karl Watson, Mike Pegram and Paul Weitman, won the Barretts Juvenile at Los Alamitos and the Speakeasy Stakes at Santa Anita in his last two starts. The opposition includes recent impressive maiden winners Jury and Dr. Door and Speakeasy runner-up Street Vision,
Pretty N Cool, also trained by Baffert for Watson, Pegram and Weitman, headlines Sunday’s $100,000 Desi Arnaz Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 7 furlongs. The Scat Daddy filly is 3-for-4 with her only blemish a second behind undefeated Breeders’ Cup winner and likely Eclipse Award winner Songbird in the Grade I Del Mar Debutante. Pretty N Cool’s three victories include the Grade II Sorrento at Del Mar and the Grade II Matron at Belmont Park. Her six rivals includes stakes winners Patriotic Diamond and Surfside Tiara.
Woodbine
Sunday’s $200,000 (Canadian), Grade II Bessarabian Stakes for fillies and mares at 7 furlongs on the all-weather course attracted a field of seven. Cactus Kris enters off a come-from-behind win in the Grade III Ontario Fashion Stakes going a furlong shorter. Marbre Rose, Irish-bred and French-raced, won the Grade III Seaway Stakes two starts back. Miss Mischief has been a tough customer at Presque Isle Downs and also has run well at Woodbine. Elusive Collection has only two starts on her resume but she won both over the course at 6 furlongs. Endless Light has two wins and seven seconds from nine starts and most recently was second to Cactus Kris in the Ontario Fashion.
News and notes
RIP Pat Eddery. The winner of more than 4,600 races including four Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, passed away this week at age 63. He rode many of the top horses of the late 20th Century, from 1969 until his retirement in 2003. He rode Pebbles to victory in the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Turf. His father, Jimmy, won the Irish riding championship in 1955 and Eddery duplicated that feat in 1982.
Golden Horn, despite his second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup, Tuesday night was crowned Cartier Horse of the Year. The Cartier Racing Awards, presented for the 25th time, are European horseracing’s equivalent of the U.S. Eclipse Awards. Owned and bred by Anthony Oppenheimer, the John Gosden-trained Golden Horn scored four Group 1 victories in 2015 — the Investec Derby at Epsom Downs, the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown Park, the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown and the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. The Cape Cross colt also won the Cartier 3-year-old colt award. Golden Horn retires to Dalham Hall Stud after finishing second Found in the Breeders’ Cup and is listed second by 3 pounds to American Pharoah in the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings update announced Thursday.
Solow was named Cartier Older Horse after an undefeated season that included five Group 1 wins. He returns for a 6-year-old campaign. Muhaarar won the Cartier Sprinter Award, picking up steam after being cut back from the Classic distances to win four Group 1 events. Legatissimo took down the Cartier 3-year-old filly award, Simple Verse was only the second 3-year-old to earn the Cartier Stayer award and Air Force Blue and Minding, both trained by Aidan O’Brien for Coolmore interests, scored in the juvenile categories.
