With 12 horses set to go in the Grade 2, $200,000 Kennedy Road Stakes November 22 at Woodbine, the six furlong sprint over the Polytrack surface shapes up as an interesting betting race.
2/1 morning line favorite Calgary Cat won last year’s Kennedy Road Stakes and draws the outside post 12 for trainer Kevin Attard. He is strictly the one to beat based on his recent form. The five year-old gelding has won 10 of 20 career starts, and finished second last-out in the Grade 3 Bold Venture September 13 at Woodbine. Calgary Cat has won 3 of 5 starts in 2015, including a trio of listed stakes wins. Jockey Eurico Da Silva will be aboard the multiple graded stakes winner who also won the 2014 Sovereign Award for Champion Sprinter.
Stacked Deck (4/1) returns to Canada after shipping to Keeneland for a pair of turf sprints, finishing third in the Grade 3 Woodford Reserve and tenth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. The Barbara Minshall trainee has won 6 of 16 career starts, including a win over Calgary Cat in the Bold Venture Stakes. Jockey Luis Contreras gets the mount breaking from post 5.
Bye Bye Bernie (6/1) is fresh off a career-best Grade 2 victory in the Nearctic Stakes October 18 at Woodbine. It was the Brendan Walsh trainee’s first try against graded stakes foes after spending much of his 25-race career with middling results against allowance and minor stakes company.
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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