This weekend's live racing action has plenty to offer fans, despite closures across multiple tracks due to high heat index predictions.
Woodbine and Laurel have cancelled racing on Friday. Colonial Downs and Ellis Park have cancelled racing on Friday and Saturday. Delaware Park has also cancelled it's Saturday program.
Leading the charge is the return to racing of last year's juvenile champion, Forte, who takes on a small but talented group in the G2 Jim Dandy at the Spa. Defeated last out in the Belmont Stakes, Forte will add blinkers for this next test on the road toward the Travers.
Another 2022 champion will enter the starting gate on Saturday at Saratoga: Elite Power is the headliner for the Grade 1 Vanderbilt. The Bill Mott trainee faces old rival Gunite, as well as talented Florida-bred Dean Delivers.
The Breeders' Cup Challenge program offers a pair of “Win and You're In” races this Saturday as well. First up is Ascot's blockbuster King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, which has drawn Epsom Derby winner Auguste Rodin, last year's winner Pyledriver, and four additional Group 1 winners: Emily Upjohn, Hukum, Luxembourg, and Westover.
The other Challenge race is at Del Mar, the Grade 1 Bing Crosby over six furlongs, which offers a berth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. It drew a well-matched field of 12, including last year's winner American Theorem.
Saturday's card at Laurel Park features the 32nd renewal of the six-furlong De Francis as headliner on a 10-race program featuring five stakes worth $500,000 in purses, including the $100,000 Deputed Testamony, $100,000 Alma North, and a pair of $75,000 events restricted to Maryland-bred/sired horses.
Breeders' Cup Turf winner in 2022, Rebel's Romance returns stateside for Sunday's G2 Bowling Green at Saratoga, and Sunday's G2 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar features a field of nine going nine furlongs on the lawn.
Saturday
4:26 p.m. – Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga
Reigning Champion Male Sprinter Elite Power bested dual graded stakes-winner Gunite when they last faced off in the Group 3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in February in Saudi Arabia. The two millionaire sprinters will renew their rivalry, some 6,400 miles away, as they battle for divisional supremacy.
Juddmonte's Elite Power, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, won 5-of-6 starts last year, taking the Grade 2 Vosburgh at Belmont at the Big A and the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland to complete his Championship season.
The 5-year-old Curlin chestnut made his seasonal debut with a powerful performance in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint, flying to a 3 1/4-length score over a grinding Gunite. Elite Power did not return until June 10, easily posting a 1 3/4-length win in the 6 1/2-furlong Grade 2 True North over Big Sandy.
Gunite posted a record of 7-4-2-0 last year, winning stakes at Churchill Downs [Maxfield, Harrods Creek], Saratoga [Grade 2 Amsterdam] and Keeneland [Perryville]. The dark bay endured a troubled trip as he concluded a solid sophomore season in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and settled for fourth, four lengths back of the Mott-trained winner Cody's Wish.
The well-traveled colt prepared for the Riyadh Dirt Sprint with a four-length romp in the King Cotton over sloppy and sealed going in January at Oaklawn Park and completed his overseas excursion with a close third in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen in March at Meydan Racecourse. Gunite tuned up for Saturday's test by posting a career-best 108 Beyer Speed Figure with a stalking effort in the six-furlong Aristides on June 3 at Churchill Downs, scoring a 1 3/4-length win over Bango, who exited that effort to win the Kelly's Landing at Ellis Park.
Dean Delivers, Gun It, Little Vic, Synthesis, and Awesome Aaron round out the field.
5:45 p.m. – Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga
Reigning Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Forte will face a compact but talented field as he seeks to regain winning form for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Forte arrives from a closing runner-up effort to Arcangelo in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 10 at Belmont Park. He entered the 1 1/2-mile marathon from 10-week's rest after scratching the morning of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby due to a bruised foot, but shook off any signs of rust with a brave five-wide rally from sixth-of-9 to come up 1 1/2 lengths shy of victory in the “Test of the Champion.”
Prior to scratching from the Derby, Forte had been tabbed the morning-line favorite after a spring campaign that saw him notch wins in Gulfstream Park's Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and Grade 1 Florida Derby. As a juvenile, he won a trio of Grade 1s in the Spa's Hopeful, and the Breeders' Futurity and Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, awarding him with his Champion honors.
Two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox brings a formidable trio of challengers in Grade 1-winner Angel of Empire [post 5, Flavien Prat, 124 pounds], graded stakes-winner Hit Show [post 3, Luis Saez, 120 pounds] and graded stakes-placed Saudi Crown [post 4, Florent Geroux, 118 pounds].
Completing the field is graded stakes-winner Disarm [post 1, Joel Rosario, 120 pounds] for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. The bay colt enters from a determined half-length victory in the Grade 3 Matt Winn on June 11 at Ellis Park for his first graded victory on the heels of a fourth in the Kentucky Derby and on-the-board finishes in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds and Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland.
9:30 p.m. – Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar
The Crosby, named, of course, in honor of the track's founder, has drawn 12 fast horses for a six-furlong spin that not only guarantees the winner a $240,000 check and Grade I honors, but also grants them a guaranteed paid entrance to the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita this November through the “Win and You're In” program. The race's defending champ, Kretz Racing's American Theorem, is back to give the dash another try.
The Crosby is a very well-matched bunch, but Del Mar's morning line maker Jon White has hung Red Baron's Barn Dr. Schivel – who won the Crosby in 2021 as a 3-year-old – as the ever-so-slight favorite at 7/2. He'll have top rider Juan Hernandez in the boot.
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