What to watch for: Baffert's hold on Los Alamitos Futurity

Trainer Bob Baffert will have both juvenile colts and fillies in Grade 1 action this weekend at Los Alamitos, where he has won all four runnings of the Futurity since its switch from Hollywood Park. Overall, he's taken the final top-level race of the season for 2-year-olds 10 times, and will likely be favored to do so again Saturday.

Across the pond, a strong contingent of runners, some of them seen in the Breeders' Cup last month at Churchill Downs, return in the Hong Kong International Races.

Here’s what to watch for this weekend: 

Baffert takes strong pair to Los Alamitos Futurity 

Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity will mark another showdown between Baffert and Jerry Hollendorfer. The two Southern California trainers have continuously faced off this season with their top 2-year-olds, and this time it should be Improbable and Mucho Gusto (Baffert) versus Gunmetal Gray and Dueling (Hollendorfer).

Improbable was first known as the colt who occupied Justify’s old stall. After a romping 7 ¼-length win in the Street Sense Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard, he looks to have the talent to match, now hitting the 2019 Kentucky Derby trail. Mucho Gusto will stretch out beyond a sprint for the first time having won on debut at Los Alamitos, then followed with a gate-to-wire score in Del Mar's Bob Hope Stakes (G3).

Gunmetal Gray and Dueling both ran in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. Gunmetal Gray is also Grade 1-placed thanks to his runner-up effort in the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) behind the likely champion Game Winner. Dueling broke his maiden one race before taking on the Breeders' Cup.

King of Speed and Extra Hope should also show up in the entires. King of Speed, trained by Jeff Bonde, returns to the dirt after wins in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf and Zuma Beach Stakes. He last ran 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Extra Hope from Richard Mandella’s stable will try to turn the tables on Mucho Gusto and improve from a fourth-place run in the Bob Hope. Added distance going to 1 1/16 miles, and the long Los Alamitos stretch, should help.

Top juvenile fillies shine in Starlet Stakes

Baffert’s also taking aim at the Grade 1, $300,000 Starlet Stakes with last out stakes winners Chasing Yesterday and Mother Mother, who will be seeking 2019 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points.

Chasing Yesterday is the half-sister of American Pharoah and could turn out to be the most accomplished of his siblings. The Starlet marks her freturn to Grade 1 company after shipping to Saratoga for the Spinaway (G1), where she ran a problematic seventh. She bounced back in California to win the Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita and the Desi Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar. 

Mother Mother, second in the Del Mar Debutante (G1), missed her rematch with Bellafina in the Chandelier Stakes (G1) due to fever, which kept her from trying the Breeders’ Cup. The filly still shipped to Churchill Downs, where she wired the Rags to Riches Stakes a week before the championships. 

Looking to break through is Vibrance, who hit the board in both the Chandelier and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She’ll likely be joined by Tempted (G3) winner Oxy Lady and maiden winner Enaya Alrabb.

Baffert swept last year's Futurity with McKinzie and Starlet with Dream Tree.

Breeders’ Cup runners return in Hong Kong

Although no U.S.-based horses will be competing, Hong Kong’s Sha Tin Racecourse will feature four intriguing Group 1 events early Sunday.

Chief among them is the Hong Kong Vase featuring Breeders’ Cup contenders Waldgeist and Eziyra. Also on deck is the Hong Kong Cup, Hong Kong Mile and Hong Kong Sprint. All races are for 3-year-olds and up on turf. The Vase is the longest at 1 ½ miles, followed by the 1 ¼-mile Cup, the Mile, and the six-furlong Sprint.

Vase contender Waldgeist won four consecutive grouped stakes this season, including the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (G1). He then ran fourth of 19 in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, only a couple lengths behind Enable, and finished fifth to the filly in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Waldgeist has been off the board in his last two outings, but is no doubt a strong contender for trainer Andre Fabre with the competition he’s been up against.

Exiting a sixth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf is Dermot Weld-trained Eziyra. The 4-year-old filly has won five grouped stakes, but has yet to break through at the Group 1 level. She’s placed in Group 1 company twice, running third to Enable in last year’s Irish Oaks and behind Sea of Class and Coronet in the Yorkshire Oaks two starts back. Sea of Class went on to nearly catch Enable in the Arc.

Also in the Hong Kong Vase is Irish Derby (G1) winner Latrobe, trained by Joseph O’Brien, son Aidan O’Brien; Coolmore’s Rostropovich, a multiple grouped stakes winner; and Hong Kong-based Pakistan Star, who won the Audemar’s Piguet QE II Cup (G1) and Champions & Chater Cup (G1) this spring.

Hong Kong Cup standouts include Werther and Stormy Antarctic. Werther is a regular over the Sha Tin turf course and has picked up multiple Group 1 wins over the track. The 7-year-old gelding has hit the board multiple times this season but is still looking for his first win of 2018. Stormy Antarctic’s biggest win came this past May when he won Germany’s Badener Meile (G2). He was third behind Oscar Performance in September’s Woodbine Mile (G1) and fourth in Ascot’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1) on British Champions Day. The QE II was won by Roaring Lion.

Multiple Group 1 winner Beauty Generation is back to defend his title in the Hong Kong Mile. He’s proven himself a consistent competitor over Sha Tin’s turf between seven furlongs and a mile and brings four consecutive wins into this race. European invader Beat the Bank, a multiple Group 2 winner, has also found success at a mile. Another contender of note is Vivlos, who cuts back in distance while seeking his first win since the 2017 Dubai Turf (G1).

D B Pin was second in the Hong Kong Sprint a year ago and will look to do one better Sunday. He started off the year by winning the Centenary Sprint Cup (G1) in January before he was away for 10 months. He finished ninth in his return race. Hot King Prawn is almost perfect in his 10-race career, with a runner-up finish the only dent in his record. He’s won three grouped stakes in a row and the Sprint will be his first Group 1 attempt. Fine Needle, a multiple Group 1 sprinter from Japan, is also entered.