The Glens Falls Handicap (Grade 3)- $250.000 Purse
SAR- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
One Mile and Three Eighths on the Inner Turf
September 1, 2018
It is hard to believe that we have reached the final weekend of the SAR meet. It’s been a wet one, but hopefully we will be able to finish things off dry. Part of the card on Saturday features the 13th running of the Glens Falls Handicap, a Grade 3 event with a decent $250.000 purse attached to it. It is the highest purse that the race has ever run for, as it is a $50.000 increase from 2017. Speaking of last year, that race was won by Volare, and she will return this year to try and become the first two time winner of the race. She will have four looking to prevent that and a competitive race should be expected. Weight in this handicap will be a non-issue as the entire field handles either 119 or 120 pounds. We’ll get to start with Volare in the run through the field, and then meet her opponents. Let’s get it started.
#1- Volare (Axeman, ridden by L H Colon)- This will be the 56th start in the career of the eight year old, and she will be hoping it turns into her 20th win. She has earned over $2,300.000 in her career, which includes last years version of this race. However, since then she has not won another stake, and has only one overall win since then, which was an allowance. Is the curtain call for Volare beginning to start? Her last two races have seen consecutive fifth place finishes, including the Grade 3 RGD. That’s a race she ran the last two years, winning and 2016 and running third, being within a length, last year. You have to go all the way back to 2014 to find the last time she had three consecutive races where she failed to hit the board. Though this field is smaller, it’s still a good field. Based on accolades, Volare is the favorite, and we know she has the ability. Now it is time for her to dig down and show that again.
#2- Bonkers (Team 7 Illusions, ridden by C J Lanerie)- In something you don’t always see, she is a full sister to Free Sunset, who will be running in the Mabee Stakes at DMR on Saturday as well. It’d give me a great storyline to cover if they both ended up winning, and that might not be a stretch. Free Sunset is a top threat to Good Line in the Mabee, and Bonkers is also very well accomplished, having won the Grade 3 Red Carpet Stakes last year at DMR. Now, so far this year the results could label her a bit of an underachiever, but she can change that here.
#3- Desmarais (Jerry Garcia Racing, ridden by J R Leparoux)- As a two year old, Desmarais was seen in some pretty big races, including the Grade 2 Spinaway, but those races saw disappointing finishes, and most of her three year old season was at the allowance level. This year, she annihilated a field at the $70.000 Keertana at CD, taking the race by eight lengths on the soft turf. That saw her go to the Grade 2 Dance Smartly at WO at the end of June, and finished in the middle of the field. Interestingly, in that field was the aforementioned Free Sunset when looking at Bonkers. This is her chance to show she is ready to compete at the stake level, and does not need an off track.
#4- Nice Laff Phooey (Maxmillion Farm, ridden by J K Court)- Last year, Nice Laff Phooey had a successful three year old campaign, being in the money in all of her seven starts. That led to more challenging placement this season, which started well by winning the SSM Fillies and Mares Turf Sprint, but she did not follow that up as well as the trainer would have liked. She will come into this race off a third place run in the Grade 3 Modesty Handicap, which is run at a mile and three sixteenths. How good that run actually was is the question, as it was just a four horse field. I have a gut feeling that she is going to run a big one here.
#5- Cross Culture (Mb Stables, ridden by F Pennington)- Is this the next horse that Mb Stables takes from out of no where and turns into a star. Up to this point, Cross Culture has not been running in top races, and was claimed by the trainer for $14.000 on the 4th of August. For her to go where she was, to being entered here, Mb must see something. He is significantly increasing her distance level. Is that all it will take? Worked nicely at MTH on the 21st, so perhaps she’ll become that new star. She will have the services of the great F Pennington, so that will absolutely help her chances. Should be a longshot based on history, but do we doubt what the trainer might have up his sleeve?
Prediction: 4-2-1-5
— NS
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
