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March 18 (UPI) -- Oaklawn Park steps to the fore in weekend horse racing with a pair of competitive races on the Saturday program while the BMW Hong Kong Derby and the Golden Slipper in Australia headline the international action. Otherwise, there's no getting around the fact it's a relatively slow weekend. So we'll have a week-ahead look at Dubai's big night. And News and Notes chronicles the latest chapter in the slow death of Arlington Park.
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Up, up and away.
Oaklawn Park
The top three finishers from the local Grade III Razorback Handicap all return for Saturday's $500,000 Grade III Essex Handicap, going the same 1 1/16 miles.
Plainsman, the favorite in the Feb. 12 Essex, managed to eke out victory by a neck over pacesetting Thomas Shelby. Popular Kid ran evenly to finish third.
Watch out for some less-obvious options in the Razorback.
Title Ready's record shows some pretty solid defeats through the past two seasons but note those came in some of the world's toughest races -- the Breeders' Cup Classic, Dubai World Cup and Pegasus World Cup among them.
He has won at Oaklawn and has been training well. Warrior's Charge won an optional claimer over the track last time out by 9 3/4 lengths and is 8-for-10 in-the-money at Oaklawn.
A competitive field of Saturday's $200,000 Grade III Whitmore Stakes at 6 furlongs. Bob's Edge gets the oddsmaker's edge at 5-2 on the morning line off a victory in his last start, the local King Cotton Stakes on Jan. 29.
Hollis finished fifth in the King Cotton, but returned Feb. 20 with an easy allowance win and is 3-for-5 over the Hot Springs oval.
Kneedeepinsnow could be right there with a small step forward. Greeley and Ben has won 12 of his last 13 races. Most of them were well down the class ladder but you gotta love a horse that likes to win, even if he is 8. As "The Pontiff," Jude Feld, likes to day, "Old Guys Rule."
Elsewhere
Saturday's card at Laurel Park incudes five stakes races. The $100,000 Private Terms for 3-year-olds could finger some Preakness candidates. The $100,000 Beyond the Wire for 3-year-old fillies might find candidates for the Black Eyed Susan.
Gulfstream Park on Saturday has the $100,000 Hutcheson Stakes for 3-year-olds and $100,000 Any Limit Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Saturday at Aqueduct features the Cicada Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. All of those are at 6 furlongs on the dirt.
Around the world, around the clock ...
Australia
Saturday's Golden Slipper program at Rosehill Gardens includes five Group 1 events including the Longines Golden Slipper itself -- a 1,200-meter event for 2-year-olds that has an overflow field. Sixteen will run in one of Australia's iconic races.
There's also a full field for the Furphy Galaxy at 1,100 meters, with Isotope an antepost fancy and then lots to choose from, form-wise. Forbidden Love looks dangerous in The Agency George Ryder Stakes at 1,500 meters after winning the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes in her last start, but faces such recognizable names as Colette, Mo'unga and Kolding.
Anamoe and Converge stand out in a nine-horse field for the Sky Racing Active Rosehill Guineas at 2,000 meters. And the first of the five, the Ranvet Stakes, also at 2,000 meters, has most punters' likely banker for the day, Verry Elleegant in a field of just six.
There's a weather eye out for course conditions as the sod was soft late Thursday, with hopes of slight improvement in time for the races.
Japan
Sunday's Grade 2 Spring Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1,800 meters doesn't have any superstars -- yet, anyway. Kitasan Sugar, a daughter of Kitasan Black from the German-bred mare Poison Lips, was a winner at first asking Jan. 23. So, too, was Tiz Glorious, a Deep Impact filly out of the Tiz Wonderful mare Tiz Tremendous.
Others looking for a quick return to earlier form include Scintillation, a Lord Kanaloa miss who had good and not so good days in 2021, but won her 2022 debut for the good folks at Silk Racing.
Nishino Love Wink, by Epiphaneia, had a win, two seconds and a third last year, but finished seventh in the Grade 3 Fairy Stakes in her 3-year-old debut. Personal High, a Deep Impact filly, also showed promise until she ran into the really good ones in the Grade I Hanshin Juvenile Filles where she got home 16th.
Hong Kong
There are few bright spots in Hong Kong these days as a fifth wave of the pandemic rips through the area, prompting draconian countermeasures.
So, even though those precautions will keep the stands empty at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday, the renewal of the BMW Hong Kong Derby will be a welcome, albeit remote, diversion for legions of racing fans.
The Derby, restricted to 4-year-olds, is always a high point of the Hong Kong racing season -- a fixture that resonates for local owners, trainers and fans in a way that even the Hong Kong Jockey Club's illustrious lineup of international Grade I races cannot.
Owners covet the trophy for bragging rights. And the roster of past winners is replete with names that have gone on to glory -- including glory in those same international Group 1's.
This year's renewal finds Romantic Warrior and California Spangle as the favorites. Each captured one previous leg of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series. There are distance questions as the contenders stretch out to 2,000 meters.
And California Spangle' victory in the 1,800-meter Hong Kong Classic Cup, putting paid to Romantic Warrior's undefeated record, could be laid to a bad draw for the latter.
Around those questions, it would be no big surprise if another of the 4-year-olds found the longer distance just what the doctor ordered.
HKJC CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges noted one of the many coincidences that seem to attend racing all around the world: Michael Kinane represented the Club in acquiring Romantic Warrior for its International Sale.
Kinane also rode Che Sara Sara to victory in the Derby, back in 1996, when it was run over 1,800 meters.
Looking forward to the race, Engelbrecht-Bresges reflected, "I have no doubt the race will live up to its billing even if, sadly, we cannot accommodate our valued customers, members and owners because of the deteriorating pandemic situation."
Dubai
Looking another week into the future, the lineup for the 26th edition of the Dubai World Cup races looks as bright as ever in the first 25.
The $12 million Group 1 World Cup itself looks to be the preserve of American runners, with Breeders' Cup Mile and Pegasus World Cup winner Life Is Good bidding to frank his status as the reigning dirt horse in the world.
He faces fellow Americans Hot Rod Charlie, already a winner during the World Cup Carnival in the Group 1 Maktoum Challenge Round 3; and Country Grammer and Midnight Bourbon, the second- and third-place finishers from the $20 million Saudi Cup.
The $1 million Group 2 UAE Derby also should have an American favorite in Pinehurst, winner of the Saudi Derby in his last start.
But the international competition, from Japan and elsewhere, as well as a strong field of locals, should make things interesting.
Also making the race interesting is its status in the Churchill Downs "Road to the Kentucky Derby" series, virtually guaranteeing the first- and second-place finishers a spot in the Louisville starting gate -- except for Pinehurst, whose trainer, Bob Baffert, is under the Churchill Downs interdict.
Top turf horses will contest the likes of the $6 million Group 2 Dubai Sheema Classic at 1 1/2 miles, the $5 million Group 1 Dubai Turf at 1,800 meters, the $1.5 million Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at a straight 1,200 meters from the stretch chute, and the evening's longest race, the $1 million Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup at 3,200 meters.
The $1 million Group 2 Godolphin Mile is run on the dirt course, as is the $1 million Group 1 Golden Shaheen at 1,200 meters.
Capacity restrictions have been lifted at Meydan Racecourse for the first time since the pandemic forced cancellation of the 2020 World Cup so the massive facility is expected to be packed and rocking.
"The quality of the horses, trainers, owners and jockeys who have assembled is better than ever and we are looking forward to a superb day of racing with our guests from all over the world," said Sheik Rashid bin Dalmook Al Maktoum, chairman of the Dubai Racing Club.
News and Notes
The Arlington Million will live on despite Churchill Downs' decision to sell Arlington Park for redevelopment.
The Louisville track announced Tuesday it will host a special "Arlington Million Day" Aug. 13 to include the Million itself plus the $500,000 Beverly D. for fillies and mares, the $300,000 Secretariat Stakes for 3-year-olds and the $200,000 Pucker Up Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
All the races are on the turf. All are Grade I affairs save the Pucker Up, which is a Grade III.
To preserve the date on the international racing calendar, Churchill Downs arranged to take the day from Ellis Park's schedule with the approval of that track, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and horsemen.
The International Racing Bureau in Newmarket, England, a key player in the launch of the Arlington Million and many other events worldwide, already has had inquiries about the fate of the Million and stands ready to lend its expertise as Churchill Downs bids to join top-rank global turf racing.
Churchill Downs also is taking over five other races from Arlington, to be scattered through the season.
CDI has entered into a tentative sale agreement with the Chicago Bears, who would build a new stadium on the northwest suburban land.
The Arlington Heights Daily Herald reported Thursday the team has hired firms to draw up initial plans for a stadium -- another indication the deal is well-meant.
