The $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap on Friday at Prairie Meadows may have only drawn a field of six in the six-furlong contest, but it has attracted a quality group of older males. Carrying a high weight of 120 pounds will be graded stakes winner Delaunay.
Delaunay, trainer by Tom Amoss for owner Maggie Moss, will be ridden for the first time by Robbie Albarado, Jr. while regular rider Rosie Napravnik recovers from injury. A seven-year-old son of Smoke Glacken, Delaunay has won sixteen of his 45 starts, two of which have come against graded competition. He was second in the Iowa Sprint Handicap last year as the heavy favorite and has been tabbed at the 8-5 morning line favorite again.
Second choice at 5-2 is Work All Week, a five-year-old son of City Zip trained by Roger Brueggemann. Chris Emigh will be back aboard after piloting him to a front running victory in the Hot Springs Stakes in March at Oaklawn. The lightly-raced gelding has won nine of his eleven starts and is two for two this year. He will be making his first start at Prairie Meadows.
Third choice on the morning line is Alsvid at 7-2. Trained by Chris Hartman and scheduled to be ridden by Ken Tohill, the five-year-old gelded son of Officer is a seven-time stakes winner. He has won four of his five starts at Prairie Meadows and was last seen winning the Prairie Express Stakes in May.
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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