Benson Memorial Stakes ($150.000 Purse)
FG- For Fillies and Mares Four Years Old and Upward
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Turf
March 21, 2026

For the seventh time, the ungraded Benson Memorial Stakes will take place at FG, and it will send a field of six older females a little more than a mile on the turf course. It’ll be the third time that the race has run for $150.000, and that’s up from the $100.000 that was offered for the first edition of the race back in 2020. Last year’s Benson was won by The Desire, for Sheffler Stables. That mare is still active but has not won since that race and based on recent results, is probably not going to be back at the stake level any time soon, at best. Here’s a look at those with their own desire, and that’s to win this year’s race:

1- Book Of Spells (Simmer Down Stable, ridden by C J McMahon)- For the past eleven months, Book Of Spells has been running in free track claimers, and after destroying a field by 11 lengths last time out, she’s headed not only to pay track, but into a stake. When she has run for a purse, she’s won twice, including at HOU in January of last year. It’s her first stake appearance of any type, here. I wish I could see what she is working at a mile, since she has no recent public works of that sort.

2- Power Grab (Maxmillion Farm, ridden by V Espinoza)- Ran here last month in the Stall Memorial Stakes, but did not do much before she was beaten by three lengths in a sixth-place effort. It was the first time that she had run long since the fall of 2024, so if she needed to shake off some rust at the distance, she was able to do that. Work times say that she should not have an issue going a mile and a sixteenth, but that hasn’t been the case on race day. Perhaps, that change on Saturday.

3- Train Station (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by J R Velazquez)- Looks to be one of the top options here. Two starts ago, she looked sharp in winning the $300.000 Cardinal at CD and used that race to leap into the Grade 1 Pegasus F & M Turf last time out. Considering the field quality, up against the likes of Poetic Panther, Painville, and the great Lady Hilltopper, the fact that she finished fifth in that is noteworthy. None of those previously mentioned stars are a part of this field, so that can help. On the other hand, I wonder why the trainer is dropping her. Is it just a matter of the race calendar?

4- Sea Of Galilee (Winning Link Stables, ridden by B Curtis)- Picked up by the trainer for $44.000 in the September 2025 auction, and has made four starts since then. None of them are wins, but she did run second in the Grade 2 Mrs Revere two back where she was nipped at the wire. Winning Link hoped that she could build on that in the Grade 1 American Oaks, but that would not be the case, but perhaps she just did not like the soft turf that day. Now, she will make her first start as a four-year-old.

5- Arosha (Spb Racing, ridden by L Dettori)- This has been a consistent filly over her 18-race career, with fifteen in the money finishes. Five of them are wins, and that includes her last start, which was right here in an allowance last month. She’s run in a couple stakes in the past, and ended up third in each of them, so she will not be out of her element here, and she certainly has found home at FG. Also, let’s give credit to Spb Racing for turning this filly around, as she was mired in small claimers with multiple trainers before he picked her up.

6- Alicent (Alydar Stables, ridden by I Castillo)- This will be the fourth race in a row for Alicent at FG, and when we saw her last, she earned the win in the $100.000 Stall Memorial Stakes, a race with the same conditions we see here. She’ll also be starting from the same post as she did in the Stall, so perhaps it will be more of the same for her at the end as well. The Stall was her first stake win, and all three of her wins have come here at FG (5-3-2-0 record here). Hard to bet against her.

Prediction: 6-3-4-2

— NS

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded