Super Sophs Set for Super Saturday
A total of 11 races with major implications for Breeders’ Cup weekend in five weeks’ time will be run Saturday afternoon at Belmont Park and Santa Anita Park, and some of the nation’s top 3-year-olds will face their elders in the venues’ respective preps for the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.
In the $1-milllion GI Jockey Club Gold Cup in New York, the top three from the GI Travers S. will comprise a quarter of the field, with that race’s upset winner V. E. Day (English Channel) drawn in post 10, his stablemate and Travers runner-up Wicked Strong (Hard Spun) in the three hole and TDN Rising Star and GI Belmont S. hero Tonalist (Tapit) in post position eight. The latter will race without blinkers for the first time for the first time since finishing fourth in his career debut last November. They will all have to contend with the speed of Moreno (Ghostzapper), the GI Whitney H. winner who is exiting a gutsy runner-up effort behind GII Kelso H. aspirant Itsmyluckyday (Lawyer Ron) in the GI Woodward S. at the Spa Aug. 30. The lone gelding in the 12-strong Gold Cup field, Moreno will break one from the outside in stall 11.
In the day’s other Grade I tests at Belmont, Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Big Blue Kitten (Kitten’s Joy) will face Main Sequence (Aldebaran) and the 3-year-old Medal Count (Dynaformer) in the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, looking to atone for a desperate nose defeat last year, while Private Zone (Macho Uno) defends his GI Vosburgh S. title against Palace (City Zip) and the good sophomore sprinter Coup de Grace (Tapit). Throw a dart and pick a favorite in a wide-open running of the GI Flower Bowl Invitational S. in which Chad Brown accounts for one-third of the field, including GI Beverly D. S. runner-up Stephanie’s Kitten (Kitten’s Joy). After passing on last Saturday’s GI Cotillion S., Repole Stable’s GI Alabama S. victress Stopchargingmaria (Tale of the Cat) looms the one to beat in the GI Beldame S. as she looks to become the new darling of the stable with the retirement of 2013 Beldame heroine Princess of Sylmar. Itsmyluckyday will clearly be the one to beat in the Kelso, but he should get a stern test from the in-form Bradester (Lion Heart), Golden Ticket (Speightstown) and Vyjack (Into Mischief), a rallying third behind Palace in the GI Forego S.
At Santa Anita, champion Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}) will look to run his career record to a perfect seven out of seven when he takes on elders for the second consecutive time in the GI Awesome Again S. The 3-year-old gelding is exiting a powerful victory in the GI Pacific Classic Aug. 24, but must prove that he can handle 10 furlongs on a conventional dirt surface for the first time.