Read Stakes (Grade 2)- $250.000 Purse
DMR- For Three Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Eighth on the Turf
July 21, 2019
This Sunday, the 16th running of the Grade 2 Read Stakes will take place at DMR, and the field for the event looks absolutely fantastic. Half of this field is coming out of either the Grade 1 Manhattan at BEL or the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at SA, so it has not mattered that the purse size for this race isn’t what it once used to be. Last year, the race was won by Gdp Inc’s Midwestern Slang, his biggest win of a season that culminated in a third place finish in the BC Mile. While the horse is still active, his best days are well behind him. This race will likely be mentioned often when we get to the BC Mile preview of 2019, so who will get the bragging rights from this race? Let’s meet the possibilities!
#1- The Ego Has Landed (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by J R Velazquez)- Everything was going great for this gelding heading into his last race. He has been in the money in all three of his starts in 2019, winning the Pan American (Grade 2), and running second in the Forester (Grade 1). One would have expected him to run well in the Grade 1 Manhattan off of those efforts, but that never happened, and he only beat one horse. The trainer hopes that was just a fluke, and perhaps they know why it would have happened.
#2- Going Gone (John Henry, ridden by R Bejarano)- The veteran Cherokee Sunset gelding makes his 27th career start, and his form has been anything but what his name says as he gets older. His last race was his signature win to this point, taking the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at SA. This was a BC Turf horse last year, but he didn’t do much. That fortune could change if he keeps running as well as he is now.
#3- Winter Solstice (Maxmillion Farm, ridden by Mario Gutierrez)- This is definitely a horse to watch as we approach the BC, as he still seems to be improving. He is a consistent runner, finishing in the money in fourteen of 16 career starts, and we know that with Maxmillion he is in a great place to have great success on the grass. On KYD weekend at CD, Winter Solstice prevailed over The Ego Has Landed to win the Forester Turf Classic. He had no problem following that up successfully, running third (via a dead heat with Lets Do It Big Boy) in the Grade 1 Manhattan, a race won by Early Retirement.
#4- Blame It On Luck (Mb Stables, ridden by E Maldonado)- The only three year old in the field, and that will earn him a five pound weight advantage over everyone else in the field. He’s going to need it. This is still a young and up coming horse, and he will make just his sixth career start right here. It will also be his graded debut, as he comes off a second place finish in the $150.000 Cinema Stakes last month. Has a shot as long as he is not star struck by his rivals.
#5- Lets Do It Big Boy (RNP Stables, ridden by B J Hernandez Jr)- Finished in a dead heat for third in the Grade 1 Manhattan last month with Winter Solstice. On that alone, he should be seen as an equal with them, but there are a lot of differences, actually. Lets Do It Big Boy has not had the same level of consistency, and that’s the only time he has hit the board in any of his seven starts this year. He knows how to be in the mix, and he showed at BEL that he can run a big race when he wants, just don’t have the same feeling about him. Hernandez has become a regular steady rider.
#6- On The Spot (Mb Stables, ridden by L H Colon)- The more accomplished of the two that Mb Stables will have in the race, and the dangerous duo of trainer and the legend of the turf, L H Colon, are back together here. When we last saw On The Spot, he was winning the Grade 2 Whittingham Stakes at SA, and while that was not his turf debut, it was the first time that he had been on grass in a very long time. There had been a lot of variation in regards to his distances leading up to that race, something that I don’t usually see from Mb Stables. If he wins this, he probably won’t leave the turf again, at least until the end of the year!
#7- Decision In Five (Nakamura Stables, ridden by L Saez)- The Brave Decision gelding has been a regular runner in Grade 3’s or ungraded stakes, and his biggest win to date is the Grade 3 Fort Marcy at BEL, a race that he won by four lengths, and was given a 104 SRF for the effort, which went wire to wire. He was unable to follow up that up, however, on soft going in the Grade 3 Poker Stakes. Likes to be on or near the lead early, and there’s a couple in here that we can say that about.
Prediction: 3-2-6-5
— NS
Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES
