Sunday January 18 stakes action at Santa Anita is limited to the $75,000 Astra a mile and a half turf race that has drawn a field of nine.
Trainer Carla Gaines will saddle the 9/5 morning line favorite in Lady Pimpernel, who notched the first graded stakes win of her career December 27 in the Grade 3 Robert J. Frankel. That effort was preceded by a third place finish in the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap November 22 at Del Mar. Lady Pimpernel has 5 wins from 16 career starts for earnings of $153,407. Victor Espinoza has the call breaking from post seven.
Stablemates, Kitten’s Point (5/2) and Lady of Gold (3/1), hail from the strong turf barn of Graham Motion. Kitten’s Point, a graded stakes winner, has been in poor form of late, finishing 7th, 7th, and 8th and in her last three starts – two of which came in Grade 1 races. Lady of Gold ran fourth behind Lady Pimpernel in the Frankel, and finished second, just ahead of that rival in the Red Carpet. While maintaining solid form of late, Lady of Gold has just 2 wins in 16 career starts.
John Sadler also sends out multiple runners, with a pair of 6/1 shots: Shysheisnot and Scooter Bird. Of the two, Shysheisnot may have more upside. The four year-old daughter of Tribal Rule has won three of her last five starts and will try stakes company for the first time since running fifth in the Soviet Problem in December of 2013 – her only off-the-board finish in eight career starts.
The field is set for the $1 million Haskell, where Nyquist will be trying to re-stake his claim as the top three-year-old in the country.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $300,000 United Nations Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and three-eighths on the turf, the Grade 1 event has drawn a field of ten colts and geldings.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes, a key prep race for the Haskell Invitational (G1). The Grade 3 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth and has drawn a field of seven three-year-olds.
With five grade 1 races and a grade 2, the undercard for the June 11 Belmont stakes could be the best single day of racing on the calendar outside of the Breeders’ Cup.
Haskell Invitational Picks for Monmouth Sunday
29 July 2016The field is set for the $1 million Haskell, where Nyquist will be trying to re-stake his claim as the top three-year-old in the country....
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