Well, that was fun. But a week after a Breeders’ Cup-like festival at Churchill Downs, punctuated by the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby, we’re looking this Saturday at a bevy of turf sprints, five of them across the land.
Take the A Train
This six-furlong grass dash for sophomore fillies looked most playable among the New York stakes. To me, the Beyers overstate the case for two horses who last ran at Fair Grounds, Lovely Emma, the major pace, and Hello Bertie, a closing threat.
Love Cervere catches the eye, having finished second by a half-length to Nitrogen, who has since won three turf route stakes in increasingly dominant fashion. Love Cervere had a considerably tougher trip in the Ginger Brew than Nitrogen, then was her own worst enemy March 29 in the Sanibel Island, pulling like crazy throughout the two-turn contest.
The cutback to a sprint seems fine, but I don’t really know who this horse is, and she’ll be a short price. She raced greenly, running in fits and starts, throughout her winning debut in a six-furlong Aqueduct turf sprint. Love Cervere has talent, but is her head in the game? Does she have much upside?
Warming can draw into the field from the also-eligible list, and her lone start, a debut win last June in an Aqueduct turf sprint, looked interesting on paper. The paper turned out to hold more appeal than the visual. Warming might be good enough; she might not.
It was Love Cervere’s stablemate Annascaul who wound up a confident selection.
Annascaul, who has a strong turf-sprint pedigree, was bet down to favoritism debuting in a statebred-restricted turf sprint at Saratoga. She dominated, showing good speed as well as a strong kick, turning back a challenge, winning with plenty to spare.
So well did she perform, trainer Christophe Clement sent the filly to the Grade 1 Natalma over a Woodbine one-turn mile. There, Annascaul sat behind the leader and finished well enough to miss third by a half-length, a decent showing if this filly is meant to be a sprinter.
I don’t think the chart gets her trip quite right in the Stewart Manor, her 2024 finale. To me, the filly was intentionally taken back behind the lead pack, a schooling exercise, and her kick was not “mild.” She was fast gaining on a loose leader while going her final furlong in 11.68, easily best in that field.
Put it all together and it looks like Annascaul can combine her natural talent and speed with lessons learned at age 2 to win her 3-year-old debut.
Siren Lure
Air Force Red has a “last time was the time” feel to him. He was a decent price winning his most recent start, but is an underlay on a cutback from 6 1/2 to six furlongs that might not suit him.
Bran has raced three times since September 2022 and is a 7-year-old. Those are your two favorites. Lovesick Blues, who enters on a 16-race losing streak, is third choice.
I’m going with Lovesick Blues’s longer-priced stablemate, Noble Reflection.
Noble Reflection showed talent from the start of his career, scoring a second-out maiden win at Oaklawn Park in March 2021 with a 91 Beyer. He then was rushed into the Lexington Stakes, ran poorly, and lost his form. Something similar happened in 2024, when Noble Reflection returned from a layoff looking like a shell of himself yet was thrown into three stakes.
It was 2023 – strong turf sprint form all season – that shows Noble Reflection has the inherent ability to capitalize on being the lone speed in a short field and can upset the Siren Lure. And there’s this: He races for the first time since being claimed by trainer Librado Barocio, who over the last four years has gone 6-4-0-0 with first-claimed horses in turf allowance and stakes races.
Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies
A guessing game, this big field populated mainly by first-time starters. The horses that have a start behind them all going dirt to turf.
After poking holes for various reasons in the shorter prices, Bohemian came up the pick. Among the four who have raced, hers easily was the worst showing. I think it was practice. That dirt race came after trainer Jack Sisterson had worked this grass-bred filly on turf, and I was quite impressed with the way Bohemian kicked home and galloped out in that April 4 turf drill.
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