Seaway Stakes – Grade III
Eleven go to post for this after the defection of My Pretty due to unavailable jockeys. Miss Hennessy came out on top of her rivals in the Honorable Miss Handicap last time and that looks like good form for this race running from a great draw with a jockey that rides this track well. There are plenty of chances drawn outside my top pick and any one of them has a right to win, Flying Bolt is a tough six-year-old and a stakes winner last time and with her 16 wins from 39 races has experience on her side. Vanessa represents the younger generation who seem to have had their HRP bump so it will be interesting to see how competitive she is as she is working as well as the elders and getting four pounds. Up She Flew comes from the in-form Riggins Racing and worked a doozy last time on the DMR track and Texas Holdem has all the class, but she can be a tough watch these days. It doesn’t get any softer the wider you go with Adolf Sniffler and Gerri G both with claims.
The Sapling Stakes
The two-year-olds do battle here and there are some nice juveniles to keep an eye on. I liked Cherokee Revolution’s last work after a game maiden win and though I do it without much confidence, I think she may just top this field. The 1.11 and change work time seems to be the benchmark for juveniles at the moment and pretty much all of them are working in that window but looking at the mile work times I think Crypto Star could make use of his experience along with Rolling Pin. As for the others, it is almost impossible to find much between them, although I like to go with stables in form and Nakamura’s runner Timeless Adversary may ride that particular wave.
FormOBrien Stakes – Grade II [BC]
A BC Spot awaits the winner of the O Brien but with big field, it will be a hard-earned spot. The only three-year-old here is Zions Mission and whilst sprints tend to go with older horses, I will be watching this one closely as the three-year-olds start to catch up with their older rivals. Tea And Sympathy was like a hurricane in his DMR work last time clocking 57 and 2 after a 1.36 flat mile work and as a five-year-old may just be taking a quick trip up the improvement curve. There are a few proven in this class not least Categorical Maybe which was third in the grade one Malibu at the end of last year and Tehran who may have been doing all his running over longer trips but as we have seen the distance of a race seems to mean very little with a good horse and he could make a big impact after a stupendous 57 and 1 work for a stakes-winning router!! Retaliate was looking unbeatable this time last year but is having a “four-year-old” season this time, he certainly can win this. Outside those runners, there are some good solid sprinters which could all win this on their day so good luck finding the gaps to all the owners looking for their place in the BC.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES
