What to watch for: Sparky Ville meets elders in Kona Gold
Originally considered a Santa Anita Derby (G1) prospect, Sparky Ville didn’t show up in the entries earlier this month. And that, in hindsight, appears a wise decision given how strong Bob Baffert’s two-turn duo of Roadster and Game Winner ran.
But Sparky Ville, a son of Candy Ride who won the San Vicente (G2) in his last start, will return in another intriguing spot, as Santa Anita Park lists him likely to go in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Kona Gold Stakes.
The race, for 3-year-olds and up at 6 1/2 furlongs, attracted 12 nominations. Sparky Ville was the only sophomore, running for trainer Jeff Bonde and Del Secco DCS Racing.
The same connections campaign King of Speed, who they consider their router, while Sparky Vile has made a living sprinting on both turf and dirt. He shows three wins from eight starts against top competition, facing Instagrand in the Best Pal (G2), Game Winner in the Del Mar Futurity (G1) and Mucho Gusto in the Bob Hope (G3) as a juvenile.
At 3, the San Vicente may have represented a breakthrough. Running in the slop, Sparky Ville nosed out the well-regarded Baffert trainee Dessman while off as the fourth choice.
As is commonplace on the West Coast, Sparky Ville will see Kona Gold competition from the Baffert barn, this time in the form of Zatter, a stakes-placed 4-year-old who worked a half-mile bullet Sunday.
“He has a good style,” said jockey Joe Talamo. “He kind of sits back and makes a nice run the last part.”
Zatter was sixth last time in the San Carlos (G3), and the race’s third-place runner, Kanthaka, is also probable for the Kona Gold. St. Joe Bay and Dr. Dorr ran 1-2 in that March 30 race.
Alwaysmining gets his Preakness audition
Connections to the top Maryland-bred stakes winner Alwaysmining elected to pass on the Kentucky Derby trail for a more conservative spot — one that could still lead them to the Triple Crown series, and with a gelding who has to prove he belongs.
Alwaysmining, a son of Stay Thirsty, could very well be odds-on in Saturday’s $125,000 Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, where he has won five straight races for trainer Kelly Rubley and Runnymede Racing.
Last time, Alwaysmining passed his two-turn test with flying colors, winning the March 16 Private Terms by 6 3/4 lengths. Back on Dec. 29, he shows a victory over Win Win Win, the Derby contender and Blue Grass Stakes (G2) runner-up, as well.
Alwaysmining tuned up for the Tesio — a “Win and You’re In” Preakness Stakes qualifier — by working a half mile Saturday in 49 seconds at his Fair Hill, Md., base.
“It’s going to take a really good horse to step up and beat him,” said trainer Graham Motion, who has sent runners out against Alwaysmining. “I think you’re probably going to see him in the Preakness, I would imagine.”
Discreet Lover going in Charles Town Classic?
Anyone who was listening to owner and trainer Uriah St. Lewis before last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic heard him say Discreet Lover, the upset winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), was running his final race. But then the 6-year-old showed up on the work tab this season.
St. Lewis entered Discreet Lover for a defense of Aqueduct’s Excelsior (G3) earlier this month. There was some confusion, however, over why he scratched as the morning line favorite.
Initially, St. Lewis informed New York Racing Association publicity that Discreet Lover had spiked a temperature. Later, the Daily Racing Form’s David Grening reported via stewards that the horse was not sick, but rather a vet scratch.
Perhaps he’ll get the green light in Saturday’s Grade 2, $1 million Charles Town Classic, for which Discreet Lover is said to be among a probable group of eight to 10 — that being the maximum number of starters at the West Virginia bullring.
It would mark Discreet Lover’s first start since running eighth in the Classic.
“There’s no magic wand when it comes to this,” St. Lewis told us earlier this month. “Some horses can race 70 times. Back then, it happened all of the time. You know, some horses, you race them a few times and they don’t want to do it anymore. [Discreet Lover] is a horse that has gotten better as time goes on. He’s a horse that wants to race.”
The 1-2 finishers of last year’s Charles Town Classic, Something Awesome and War Story, are expected to run, as is Diamond King, a 2018 Preakness participant who won his 4-year-old debut at Gulfstream Park.
Blue Prize returns at site of Grade 1
Another with time off since the Breeders’ Cup, fourth-place Distaff finisher Blue Prize will return to the site of her Grade 1 win in last year’s Spinster — Keenelenad — to get her 6-year-old campaign started in Friday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Doubledogdare.
Blue Prize, the Ignacio Correas-trained daughter of Pure Prize, headlines the 1 1/16-mile main track feature that goes at 5:30 p.m. ET.
While she was just 1 1/2 lengths behind Monomoy Girl in the Distaff, the Doubledogdare field is formidable, including, among others, Grade 1-placed La Fore, Mexican star Jala Jala and Go Google Yourself, an improving 4-year-old who turned back Wonder Gadot in her last start, an allowance race at Oaklawn Park.
Also this weekend at Keeneland, where the spring meet’s main stakes have run, and focus is shifting to the Kentucky Derby, the Grade 2, $250,000 Elkhorn is scheduled for Saturday with Mike Maker-trained Zulu Alpha and Roger Attfield’s Tiz a Slam set to meet.