Likely Exchange Stakes
1 Mile Dirt Stake Purse $125.000 Fillies & Mares Four-Year-Old And Upward. At TP
Likely Exchange Stakes first appeared on the stakes roles in 2010 and only lasted four years. It was a lowly $50.000 race, but otherwise all the conditions were the same as now. Then it disappeared eleven years only to return in 2024 as the same race but worth $125.000. I don’t know why it was gone for eleven years, maybe TP was gone for eleven years. I don’t pay that much attention. I’m too lazy to research the reason, and besides, if I researched it, I would probably have to contact Support, and you know how that goes. I think you guys would rather have the preview before the race was run. Here’s the field:
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Hoof On The Gas Team 7 Illusions 4-1 95
Peacestone Hunterman Stable *2-1 96
Spirit Storm Nakamura Stables 7-2 97
Zip The Johnson Broken Spoke Stables 5-1 91
Shining At Knight Our Athletes 6-1 91
Southern Silk Night Rider Stables 20-1 90
1 Hoof On The Gas Team 7 Illusions 95
As an April bred in this game, Hoof On The Gas is barely three years old, since she was born later in the year and her first race wasn’t until July. In only three races, she is already graded stakes placed, so I’m going all-in on this slight longshot. If that was an ungraded stakes, I wouldn’t be so impressed, but in this game, put “graded” in the title, and it becomes very difficult indeed.
2 Shining At Knight Our Athletes 91
I feel a little stupid placing millionaire Shining At Knight this far down in my handicap, but I’m just not sure what to think of her these days. She only won one race last year, and that was an allowance race. Yet, half the races she ran in were grade one. In 2024, she only won one race, but that was the grade two DEL Handicap, and she placed third in the BC Distaff. Not too shabby. The second last out in an allowance race is not what it appears to be in that she ran into a buzzsaw in the streaking Childe Girl. If she’s her old self, she wins this. If she’s tired at six with 30 races, then maybe pastures and babies.
3 Zip The Johnson Broken Spoke Stables 91
Four races back, Zip The Johnson was claimed from his breeder, Second Chance Farms, for $12.500. Second Chance devoted seven races to develop an allowance horse but had to drop her into claiming ranks where she was picked off four races later. Broken Spoke Stables tried a couple of sprints with her where she showed a complete lack of interest. But then the surprise came when she was entered into a mile-70 $20.000 claimer and stunned with a three-length victory. Seeing this, her trainer entered her in the $100.000 Valene Memorial Stakes, and she placed second closing with every stride to miss by a half-length.
4 Angel Wings Waldo 96
This lightly raced four-year-old is a hard charging deep closer that is a bit more reliable than most deep closers. She shortened up to seven furlongs last out and showed a definite dislike for a race that didn’t give her time to get rolling like she did in the race before, the $100.000 Tranquility Lake Stakes at DMR in which she came from last to win by a head. Bred by the legendary Fractious and sold unraced for $100.000, she has had thus far a promising career and is still developing. Every chance to win this as the race dark horse.
5 Spirit Storm Nakamura Stables 97
Spirit Storm is actually dropping down a touch for this as her last three races have been graded stakes races, including a second-place effort in the grade three Maple Leaf Stakes at WO. Prior to this though, to get a win, she dropped down to become the first winner of the $50.000 Colleen at HST, and this is a filly that ran third in the KY Oaks. Interestingly, I used to date a lass in Vancouver named Colleen… used to take her to Hastings Park in the rain.
6 Southern Silk Night Rider Stables 90
Night Rider claimed Southern Silk from Nakamura Stables for $16.000 and immediately has entered her in stakes company here. It’s not that she’s all that much overmatched, she’s placed at this level in the past, it’s just that she’s been away from it for a while. I’m not sure why Nak decided to let her go considering what a nice broodmare prospect she is with that light forehand and the very nice pedigree, unless he thought he could just slip her by. He could get her past someone like me (he did), but not someone as savvy as Raj who would spot not just the pedigree, but the router conformation and that mile win at TUP in April. She might not win this race, but I think there are stakes wins ahead for her and her progeny.
7 Peacestone Hunterman Stable 96
Peacestone looked very sharp, winning the $125.000 Rampart at GP in a nice time last out in a performance that should make her the favourite in this race. She spent last year campaigning on grass mostly on graded races, mostly long routes and mostly placing, but it was the $135.000 De La Rose that brought her turf victory. Then in November, she switched back to dirt and in her next race won The Rampart. With over $500.000 in the bank at the tender age of five, she is not a mare to be toyed with.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded