Anne Marie Duff
THE feature race tonight is the Grade 1 United Nations Handicap at Monmouth. Favourite Beach Patrol won last summer’s Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at 1 1/4 miles at Arlington but has failed to win since but had kept Grade 1 company and was fourth in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Manhattan Stakes at Belmont Park in June and second in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes at Churchill Downs in May. A frontrunner, Beach Patrol will be piloted by regular rider Florent Geroux.
Itsinthepost, who was produced by Con Marnane, attempts a Grade 1 prize for trainer Jeff Mullins. A winner of Santa Anita Park’s Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes at 12 furlongs in March, he was sent to Keeneland, where he won the Grade 2 Dixiana Elkhorn Stakes at the same trip in late April.
The five-year-old American Post gelding was the beaten favourite last time out in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes but has bounced back with a bullet work at Santa Anita. Can’thelpbelieving has won over the course while Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Oscar Nominated is a regular place getter in graded stakes without winning.
The Grade 2 Mother Goose Stakes is the feature at Belmont Park with Bill Mott’s Lockdown the favourite.
In other graded race action Bob Baffert’s graded winner Danzing Candy is the 4/5 morning-line favourite for the seven-furlong Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita tonight. Kobe’s Back used his late kick to capture last year’s running and reopposes.
CANADA
Stronach Stables’ homebred Holy Helena, winner of the nine-furlong Woodbine Oaks, is the 3/1 morning-line favourite for the $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine. A victory by the daughter of Ghostzapper would be the seventh for a filly to take both the Oaks and 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate.
Holy Helena is based in New York with trainer Jimmy Jerkens, and was ridden by Luis Contreras when she came from just off the pace to score impressively in the Oaks. The gelding Channel Maker, the 4/1 second choice.