Always Shopping's return leads 5 can't-miss weekend races

Attention will focus late Saturday afternoon squarely on the Oaklawn Park stakes duo of the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) and Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3). Rightfully so, given the depth of both fields.

But a number of non-stakes races over the weekend at Oaklawn and Gulfstream Park are also worth a look given they possess the sort of entrants who could eye stakes company down the line, wherever that is amid uncertain times in the sport.

Here are five such races you won’t want to miss.

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Saturday’s fifth race at Gulfstream Park (2:46 p.m. ET)

Smirk, the 3-year-old half-brother to Grade 1 winner Elate, missed the board running over both surfaces in his first two starts, with the more recent of them on Jan. 1. But a look at his past performances shows stakes-caliber opponents such as Blackberry Wine in the running lines. For this one-mile turf test, the Blame colt will run on Lasix for the first time, and that always makes a Bill Mott trainee eligible to move forward. Smirk is 6-1 in an evenly matched group at the maiden special weight level.

Saturday’s seventh race at Oaklawn Park (4:42 p.m. ET)

Two graded stakes-placed performers stand out as familiar names, and the morning line rates them accordingly. However, both Dessman (5-2) and Everfast (4-1) have questions to answer  in this one-mile allowance. Bob Baffert-trained Dessman ships in off a runner-up in a Feb. 29 start at Santa Anita. Going back to 2019, he was also second in the San Vicente (G2) but hasn’t displayed the same turf off foot since his 7 1/2-length winning debut. Everfast, meanwhile, has transferred from Dale Romans to trainer Jack Sisterson after a 2019 season in which he ran second in the Holy Bull (G2) and Preakness but didn’t otherwise threaten in graded company.

Saturday’s ninth race at Gulfstream Park (4:53 p.m. ET)

Always Shopping looked like a good one last spring for the combination of Todd Pletcher and Repole Stable when she won the 2019 Busanda Stakes and Gazelle Stakes (G2) in succession. Connections aimed for the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) rather than Kentucky Oaks, and she ran sixth when last seen on the third Friday in May. The daughter of Awesome Again returns as an older filly going a mile on the turf, over which she shows an April 3 work entering Saturday’s allowance optional claiming event. Perhaps a try on the green is a means to get her started outside of stakes company. Always Shopping rates 4-1 on the morning line in a full field.

Saturday’s ninth race at Oaklawn Park (6:45 p.m. ET)

Break Even began her career with six straight victories before ending her 3-year-old season with a second in Saratoga’s Prioress (G2) last August. Upon return in the Feb. 29 Spring Fever at Oaklawn, the daughter of Country Day was sixth, not enough to put her in contention for the April 25 Carousel Stakes. Instead, she turns up to lead this six-furlong allowance optional claimer where the stiffest competition may come from Brad Cox stablemate Meadow Dance, who hasn’t missed the exacta in six straight starts, including her most recent appearance in the Dec. 14 Sugar Swirl (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

Sunday’s ninth race at Oaklawn Park (6:09 p.m. ET)

A number of familiar stakes runners will look to make a move forward in this 1 1/16-mile allowance optional claiming race, chief among them veterans Dr. Dorr and Lone Sailor. The former, another Baffert shipper, was second in his first try off the bench entering an Oaklawn start. Lone Sailor may be more a fit for this level after all. He eked out a local allowance score on Jan. 31 before running eighth in the New Orleans Classic (G2). Richard Baltas-trained Two Thirty Five is also well known dropping out of a seventh in the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) most recently.