WO Mile – Grade I
1 Mile Turf Graded Stake Purse $1,000.00 Three-Year-Olds And Upward. At WO
WO Mile seems to belong to the venerable Ello Santa. I look at his history, and I see an accumulation of achievement that I would normally expect to see on a seven-or-eight-year-old champion. He’s four. I think maybe Extravagant or Train Station Day have the chops to give him a bit of a challenge. One other thing, I noticed three longshots that may have a trick up their silks and they are the bottom three in my handicap: Sunflowers, Highway Robber and Safe Di.
Here’s the handicap:
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Ello Santa Mb Stables *3-5 101
Extravagant Bigchief Stables 5-1 100
Train Station Day Invicta Group Llc 5-1 101
American Nightmare D J C Racing Stables 6-1 98
Knockturn Alley Delta Farms 10-1 93
Louisiana Asset Big Jd Racing 6-1 98
Ultimate Champion Night Rider Stables 6-1 99
Big Bang Boom Rock Creek 15-1 93
Sunflowers TwinTowersRacing 20-1 98
Highway Robber Mb Stables 30-1 99
Safe Di High Voltage 30-1 94
1 Train Station Day Invicta Group Llc 101
Train Station Day is practically dedicated to one-mile turf races. This will be six in a row, and he comes here off a courageous third in the Grade II King Edward BC Stakes at WO.
2 Extravagant Bigchief Stables 100
Extravagant likes a mile turf and runs in a lot of them and runs petty well in a lot of them and seems most likely to give Ello Santa a run for his money. He was third in the Grade I Shoemaker Mile at SA earning a SRF 103 and won the Grade III American Stakes both a mile on turf.
3 Louisiana Asset Big Jd Racing 98
Louisiana Asset recently won The Grade III Westchester at a dirt mile at AQU. Thing is, the seven-year-old hasn’t been on turf since December of ’23, still he has won a couple of turf sprints.
4 Highway Robber Mb Stables 95
Highway Robber has raced 22 times and never a turf race. Now what am I supposed to do with that? Oh, well, let’s look at his works: 1 mile turf: 1:34H 1/189… yikes!! OK, so maybe he might do well on grass.
5 Knockturn Alley Delta Farms 93
Lightly raced three-year-old Knockturn Alley has only had two turf races, and the most recent was a big upset win in a PRX allowance race that indicated an interest in turf.
6 Big Bang Boom Rock Creek 93
In early ’24 Big Bang Boom was interested in sprinting, but he wasn’t winning any big races, so by autumn he was winning marathons like the 1 1/2 mile Gade III Greenwood Cup at PRX. Fast forward to ’26 and he recently placed second in The Grade III Salvator Mile on dirt.
7 Ello Santa Mb Stables 101
Ello Santa looks to be a standout in this field with an overall history that has him approaching earnings of $5,000.00 at only four years old. His current form is brilliant with five SRF 100 or 100+ in his last seven races. But never mind that, let’s take a look at his mile turf record: he has raced in four mile turf races, April 26 KEE Grade I Makers Mark Mile 1hd; March 26 SA Grade II Kilroe Mile 1nk; Novemmber 24 DMR Grade I BC Juvenile Turf 1no ; October 24 SA Grade III Zuma Beach Stakes 12 ; yep, won them all. Ello Santa has never lost at a mile on the turf. I might add that the Zuma Beach was the first turf race he ever raced in, the start of a legendary turf career. The brilliance of that move cannot be minimized. 2024: On September 8, Ello Santa runs third in the Grade I DMR Futurity, October 3 Dan buys a promising dirt horse for $150.00, October 6, he wins the Zuma Beach on turf. It’s like the most brilliant chess move I ever saw. I just get the feeling this will be win number five at a mile for this champion.
8 American Nightmare D J C Racing Stables 98
Besides being good at sprints, routes, dirt and turf American Nightmare is good at a mile on turf. He finished third in both the Grade I Makers Mark Mile and the Grade II Kilroe Mile recently.
9 Sunflowers TwinTowersRacing 98
Sunflowers wants to turn the clock back to 30 May 2025, when he ran third in the Gade III PEN Mile, and here’s his chance with the conditions pretty much the same and a trainer that pulls this sort of stuff off all the time.
10 Ultimate Champion Night Rider Stables 99
The best you can say about Ultimate Champion at a mile on turf is he ran second in NY Stallion Series – Calloway back in ’25. What I like more is his current form winning two straight most recently The $200.00 West Point Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at SAR.
11 Safe Di Gdp Inc 94
Safe Di took ten races spread out over three years to break his maiden. Then it’s just been sprints, even won a small dirt sprint stakes. Then a few days ago down at DMR, he won a big-ticket allowance race at one-mile on turf in spectacular fashion, and here he is.
Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES
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