San Marcos Stakes – Grade III
1 1/4 Mile Turf Graded Stake Purse $100.000 Four-Year-Olds And Upward. At SA
San Marcos Stakes looks to be a battle between The Sidley Stud’s Gold Vault and Nakamura Stables’ Buffalo G with the edge going to the former due to his sharp recent win in the Grade II Sycamore at KEE. It should be fun to see if longshot Super Proud can live up to the 1:08 flat six-furlong work posted on the hyper-fast downhill the other day. Here’s the field:
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Gold Vault The Sidley Stud *8-5 102
Buffalo G Nakamura Stables 9-5 99
Super Proud Langley Farms 10-1 85
Port Gibson The Sidley Stud 3-1 100
Dont You Dare Forget Czech Out Farms 4-1 93
Last Outlaw Aer Stables 5-1 89
Hero Sweep Night Rider Stables 6-1 97
Gorogue Laga Invicta Group Llc 8-1 96
Giacomo First Flight Stable 12-1 93
Pure Winner Marijane Racing Stab 20-1 93
1 Dont You Dare Forget Czech Out Farms 93
This will be Dont You Dare Forget’s first start of 2026, and it looks like his career is on the upswing as a seven-year-old. His last race of last year was a bit off as he finished eighth in the $100.000 Jerkens Handicap at GP. This followed an upset third in the Grade II Smith at AQU, so it was somewhat disappointing. The marathons seem to suit him, so perhaps this 1 1/4 mile challenge will fill into his calendar nicely.
2 Pure Winner Marijane Racing Stab 93
Pure Winner has only run in one stakes race in his career and that was a fourth in the $100.000 King Glorious Stakes at LA back in 2023. The rest of his career is allowance and claiming races and, for some reason, this race.
3 Super Proud Langley Farms 85
OK, let’s air it out. What is a 10-1 long shot like Super Proud doing picked third in a race like this? Well, sometimes I’m a sucker for pretty legs… also for pretty works. I think Langley must have looked at those improved six-furlong works and thought, just for the fun of it, I’ll work him on the downhill and see what it looks like. Well, it looks like this: 1:08 Ain’t that purty? So, I think his works are hot enough to make him a factor today. There aren’t a lot of strong pointers indicating a big run today other than a general sign of improvement over the last seven or so races.
4 Gold Vault The Sidley Stud 102
Gold Vault seems to be in the best form of this field with a gorgeous come from behind win in the Grade II Sycamore at KEE last out and a second in the Grade I Hirsch Turf Classic at AQU the race before, and third the race before the Grade II DMR Handicap. Thing is, those were all marathons; what about this shorter 1 1/4 mile race? Well, just before those races, Gold Vault won his first ever attempt on turf: the $100.000 Niagara Stakes at WO at 1 1/4 mile. Looks to me like this horse was born to race on turf, and this looks like a perfect spot.
5 Buffalo G Nakamura Stables 99
Buffalo G looks like the main competition for Gold Vault coming into this race off a disappointing fail, yet with a big SRF number because of the speed. He ran a closing eighth in the $1,000.000 Grade I Pegasus World Cup Turf earning a 99 SRF. The race before that was a second in the Grade II Seabiscuit Handicap at DMR which earned him a 100 SRF and before that he won the Grade II Smith at AQU earning a 102 SRF there. So, you can see he’s pretty fired up just now, and ready to do battle.
6 Gorogue Laga Invicta Group Llc 96
Gorogue Laga was a big-time dirt horse back in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, he won the Grade I DMR Futurity and was second in the BC Juvenile. In 2023, he won the Grade I Prk among other Graded races, then in early 2024 was auctioned by Arindel for $885.010. He has continued on to a career of 32 dirt races with earnings of $2,875.970… never a turf race and only two turf sprint works ages ago, and here he is coming off a seventh in the $75.000 Blitzen Handicap on dirt at PRX. You figure it out.
7 Port Gibson The Sidley Stud 100
In October of last year, Port Gibson ran second in a DED dirt sprint claiming race and was claimed from Luz International for $4.000. The Sidley Stud checked his mile turf works for the first time in the seven-year-old’s life and discovered works in the 1:34’s and decided to try a turf stakes as his first race for them. They entered him in the $100.000 Bradley Stakes at FG and watched as he entered the stretch tenth and hit the wire third beaten only a half-length. That’s about it. His entire career had been dirt sprinting, mostly claiming with occasional forays into stakes races, even a couple of wins. Now he could be looking at a whole new career as a turf stakes runner.
8 Giacomo First Flight Stable 93
Giacomo took nine races to break his maiden, then went fourth in his only stakes try, the $150.000 Violette at SAR. Since then, he has been performing as a respectable allowance turf horse until his trainer has now felt him ready to return to stakes company.
9 Hero Sweep Night Rider Stables 97
Riggins Racing worked his way into stakes racing with Hero Sweep as somewhat of a bride’s maid with five seconds in a row which included a couple of stakes places, but they lost their patience with his development and started placing him in claiming races which got them a couple of wins and a claim. Raj picked Hero Sweep up for $19.000 and boldly moved him into stakes running with a fourth in the Grade II DMR Handicap, followed by a win in the $200.000 Mohawk at AQU. Now, he unfortunately arrives here off a disappointing finish in the Grade III Ft. Lauderdale Stakes at GP.
10 Last Outlaw Aer Stables 89
Last Outlaw started life with a blaze, winning his first two starts only to come up short in his next two which were stakes. Things livened up when he was switched to turf and won a share of the $125.000 Toronto Cup Stakes at WO. However, we are left with his last two races which were steps up into Graded attempts and fails.
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
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