On Saturday at Saratoga, turf milers will take center stage in the 30th running of the $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap. The Grade 2 race will be contested on the inner turf course and has drawn a field of six, though it is most notably missing reigning champion Wise Dan.
Topping the field at 9-5 is Silver Max, a five-year-old son of Badge of Silver trained by Dale Romans. Regular rider Robbie Albarado will be in the irons and the pair will break from the inside post. In his only other start this year, the bay horse went gate to wire in the Firecracker (G2) at Churchill Downs. In 2013, he won four times against stakes company and handed Horse of the Year Wise Dan his lone defeat of the year.
Todd Pletcher will send out the morning line second choice, Jack Milton, at odds of 5-2. Javier Castellano will be aboard the four-year-old son of War Front and will carry the hot pink and black silks of Gary Barber. The six-figure yearling has won two of his three starts this year and was last seen finishing fifth in the Shoemaker Mile (G1) at Santa Anita. He will break from post position three in search of his third graded stakes win.
Also in the field at odds of 3-1 is Seek Again, a homebred for Juddmonte Farms trained by Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott. The four-year-old chestnut colt began his career racing in Great Britain and made his United States debut a winning one in the Hollywood Derby (G1) last December. He has not won from two starts this year but has been on the board in both starts against Grade 1 competition. Joel Rosario will remain aboard.
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.
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