Nine fillies and mares are set to contest the 1 1/8 mile race on the main track led by 2/1 favorite Sheer Drama who won the Grade 2 Royal Delta Stakes at Gulfstream Park March 21. In her last start, Sheer Drama made her Churchill Downs debut, narrowly missing in the Grade 1 La Troienne, finishing second by three parts of a length behind multiple graded stakes winner Molly Morgan. Trained by David Fawkes, Sheer Drama has won 4 of 16 career starts for earnings of $430,440.
My Sweet Addiction (5/2) is sure to take plenty of betting action as the five year-old mare ships eastward after breaking through with a Grade 1 victory in the Vanity Stakes at Santa Anita May 9. The Martin Jones trainee has won 4 of 10 career starts and brings a front-running style to the Fleur de List that makes her the one to catch. Detractors will note the Vanity score came against just three other horses, but the daughter of Tiznow is in career-best form.
Gold Medal Dancer (3/1) has proven her class in 2015, defeating the reigning Female Horse of the Year in the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes March 14 at Oaklawn Park. The five year-old Medaglia d’ Oro mare returned from that effort to run third in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom and Grade 1 La Troienne.
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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