Bold Venture Stakes – Grade III
6 1/2 Furlongs Graded Stake Purse $150.00 Three-Year-Olds And Upward. At WO
Bold Venture Stakes features a nice bunch of dirt sprinters, and I fancy two of the youngest and one of the oldest. I looking to eight-year-old Hollywood Cruiser to hand it (or hoof it) to the shorter priced four-year-olds Crypto King and Mr Cockypants… and of course, Mr Cockypants has already won for best name.
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Hollywood Cruiser Threshold 2-1 93
Crypto King Ire Iron Stables *7-5 102
Mr Cockypants Alydar Stables 9-5 99
First Defence John Henry 3-1 99
Cinnamon Caviar TwinTowersRacing 20-1 97
Barbaric Mb Stables 4-1 98
Pirate Bounty Winning Link Stables 6-1 94
Hurricane Ridge The Sidley Stud 10-1 93
West Park Luz International 10-1 98
Imposing Scenario The Sidley Stud 20-1 97
October Surprise Night Rider Stables 30-1 90
First Defence registered a speedy place as beaten odds-on favourite in the $100.00 Pink Lloyd Stakes at WO last out. John Henry claimed him from Night Rider Stables for $14.00 back on September 15, 2924, and it has been 17 races proving himself a stakes horse. Let’s just hope John Henry doesn’t think, “Well, I only paid $14.00 for him…”
2 Barbaric Mb Stables 98
Barbaric comes here on a string of three in a row culminating with his most recent the $50.00 Bud Stakes at EMD. He has raced in only one other graded stakes race way back toward the beginning of his career and has contended in a dew stakes races, placing twice, but I do like a horse on a run.
3 Hurricane Ridge The Sidley Stud 93
Hurricane Ridge lives or dies on graded stakes races. He didn’t have the best of year’s last year but is off to a much better start this year with a win in the $200.00 SUN Stakes and enough placings to earn him $231.00 so far.
4 October Surprise Night Rider Stables 90
Seven-year-old October Surprise has been running almost exclusively routes and recently marathons in his 40 races, so when Raj dropped into a $4.00 claiming sprint and he won, that was June Surprise. So, I reckon Raj decided if this old guy was going to take to a dirt sprint and win with a 90 SRF, it would only be fair that he gives him a shot at a $150.00 Grade III stakes race. He wins this, he will be August Surprise.
5 Hollywood Cruiser Threshold 93
Old timer Hollywood Cruiser has already won two races and placed second in the Grade III Whitmore Stakes as an eight-year-old. He scored a 100 SRF in that runner-up finish. He fires six-furlong workouts in 1:10 3/5H bullets. The world is his oyster. The way he slopped through that mud wire-to-wire last out to keep his head gear clean tells me he’s ready for a repeat. Ya see, Stu, these are the logical reasons that horses win.
6 Pirate Bounty Winning Link Stables 94
Pirate Bounty was claimed out of his last start, a seven-furlong SAR dirt race in which he was the beaten by a nose favourite, claimed from Delta Farms for $20.00. He earned that favouritism with a second at a mile at MTH the race before, but most critical to this race is the race before at lowly FON ay six furlongs which he won in decent time.
7 Imposing Scenario The Sidley Stud 97
Imposing Scenario is one of those horses undervalued early in life that was claimed for a bargain, in this case for $6.25 from Mojica Racing and shortly was living on a steady diet of grade stakes races. His last favourable run was in fall of ’25 where he placed in a couple of graded stakes races and won the $150.00 AQU Turf Sprint Championship. Since then, he seems to have gone off the boil, so he needs this one to come back to the game.
8 Crypto King Ire Iron Stables 102
Crypto King is posting triple digit SRF numbers from runners-up finishes in graded stakes races and sure making that $60.00 purchase from LionKing Stables a clever move. In the six races since the purchase, he’s won two and returned three stakes checks and posting works as fast as 1:10 flat. If those last two are true indicators, I’m probably making a mistake placing him second again. At least I made him the favourite.
9 Mr Cockypants La Canada Racehorses 99
That was a pretty win Mr Cockypants showed us over at MTH in The $100.00 Mr Prospector Stakes. That’s the way I want to see my horses win, of course I’ll take any kind of win, but this lad has been looking like this ever since he got back from his little vacation in March. It’s not hard for me to picture him doing the same thing here.
10 West Park Luz International 98
West Park doesn’t attend stakes races very often. The fourth race of his life was a stakes: The $110.00 Ocala Sophomore at TAM which he won. That was in 2024. He didn’t run in a single stakes in 2025. In January of this year, he won the $75.00 SSM Sprint, and three races later he won a speedy allowance race at SAR and here he is.
11 Cinnamon Caviar TwinTowersRacing 94
Picked up for $1.00 in the Smokey Stover Dispersal, Cinnamon Caviar has attended a few stakes and graded stakes, he has yet to make a big mark beyond fourth. Dirt sprinting seems to be his preference, and if anyone can get him sparking, TwinTowersRacing is the stable to get it happening. Did I mention the 1:10 flat sizzling work? Got a wonderful post position for it, eh? Well, my $2.00 place bet will be at my lucky window which has nothing to do with the stunning red head ticket seller.
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
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