On Sunday at Santa Anita, the featured race is the $200,000 City of Hope Mile. A Grade 2 event carded at one mile on the turf, the race has drawn a field of nine colts and geldings.
Talco (FR) headlines the competitive field as the morning line favorite at odds of 5-2 for trainer John Sadler. A four-year-old son of Pivotal (GB), he has been on the board in thirteen of his sixteen races and is a five-time winner. The consistent colt has been first or second in all seven starts this year and earned his first graded stakes victory two starts back in the Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1). Rafael Bejarano will be aboard and they will break from post position six.
Second choice at morning line odds of 3-1 is Avanzare for trainer Tom Proctor. A five-year-old gelded son of Grand Reward, he has won seven of his thirteen starts and is a multiple graded stakes winner. He was third in this race last year and is coming into this year’s edition off of a pair of victories against graded stakes competition, most recently in the Del Mar Mile Handicap (G2). Gary Stevens will be in the irons and they will break from post position seven.
Also in the field at morning line odds of 5-1 is Twentytwentyvision for trainer Richard Mandella. A four-year-old son of Pollard’s Vision, the bay gelding has been on the board in all eight career outings and is a four-time winner. He is trying to earn the first stakes victory of his career and was last seen winning an optional claiming race at Del Mar. He will have Victor Espinoza aboard and they are scheduled to break from post positon five.
The field is set for the $1 million Haskell, where Nyquist will be trying to re-stake his claim as the top three-year-old in the country.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $300,000 United Nations Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and three-eighths on the turf, the Grade 1 event has drawn a field of ten colts and geldings.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes, a key prep race for the Haskell Invitational (G1). The Grade 3 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth and has drawn a field of seven three-year-olds.
With five grade 1 races and a grade 2, the undercard for the June 11 Belmont stakes could be the best single day of racing on the calendar outside of the Breeders’ Cup.
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