THERE are a number of Grade 1s in the US this week at Saratoga and Del Mar but the most interest will arguably be in a Grade 2 at Saratoga.
Essential Quality, the Kentucky Derby favourite and Belmont Stakes winner returns to the track in the Jim Dandy Stakes at the Spa (10.39pm).
The nine-furlong contest also features Masqueparade who ran on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs when he turned in an impressive performance in an allowance optional claimer, winning by over 11 lengths, and he is on a four-timer
Risk Taking was also on the classic trail but the Grade 3-winning son of Medaglia d’Oro, finished eighth in the Preakness Stakes following a seventh in the Wood Memorial for trainer Chad Brown.
Essential Quality’s form is way above his rivals but, remember, this is the graveyard of champions.
The Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap features the popular eight-year-old Whitmore who again takes on Firenze Fire. Last November, Whitmore took the glory, beating 13 rivals including Firenze Fire in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland which gave him the male sprinter award. Grade 1 winner Mischevious Alex is also in the line up.
Whitmore was second to Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up C Z Rocket in both the Hot Springs Stakes and Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park and was third last time in a Grade 1 at Churchill Downs.
There are some familiar turf names in the Grade 1 Bowling Green with Channel Cat, one of three sons of English Channel in the line-up.
The six-year-old chesnut won this two years ago and scored a dramatic win in the Man o’ War Stakes in May at Belmont Park by a nose over Gufo, who was a neck better than fellow Bowling Green-rival Moon Over Miami.
Channel Maker who finished third to Tarnawa in the Breeders’ Cup last year and was behind Mishriff in Meydan looks set to go off favourite but there is little between the top four in the betting.
In the six-and-a-half-furlong Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes, the three-year-olds Drain The Clock and Jackie’s Warrior met again after duelling in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont Park in June where Jackie’s Warrior lost for the first time around one turn.
Drain The Clock outbroke Jackie’s Warrior in the seven-furlong Woody Stephens. Jackie’s Warrior recovered to leading for six furlongs before weakening over the final furlong.
Del Mar
Tonight’s feature sees the Peter Miller-trained CZ Rocket, who has since won four stakes races and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, face eight other sprinters in the $300,000 Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes.
Mark Glatt is responsible for three of his rivals, including the 2020 Crosby winner Collusion Illusion, while Brickyard Ride from the Craig Lewis yard is speedy and a multiple stakes winner on the west coast.
Tomorrow’s Del Mar feature has the multiple Grade 1 winner Shedaresthedevil, winner of the 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks and a Grade 1 at Churchill Downs this year, in action in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes.
She has a tough enough task against As Time Goes By, Venetian Harbor and Warren’s Showtime, all who have won multiple stakes races on the Southern California circuit.
Shedaresthedevil was trained by Simon Callaghan in California for most of her two-year-old season in 2019.
This year she won the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes and Grade 2 Azeri Stakes and most recently finished third in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes.
As Time Goes By, a four-year-old daughter of American Pharoah from the Bob Baffert barn, will have Mike Smith aboard and looks the main danger.
Owned by the Coolmore connections of Tabor, Magnier, and Smith, she is coming off back-to-back victories in a pair of Grade 2 races at Santa Anita. She also finished second to champion Swiss Skydiver in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile.