Jon Stettin’s Blog
Peter Pan Stakes 2022
The Kentucky Derby is in the books. We saw one of the biggest upsets in the storied history of the race. Sandwiched in between the Derby and the Preakness which will be run next Saturday, is the Peter Pan at Belmont Park. The Peter Pan is thought of as a prep if you will for the Belmont Stakes. We’ll see how that plays out this year. Set Sail ships in from Santa Anita for Richard
Santa Anita & Belmont
A lot of focus will be on Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby along with the undercard on Saturday. There is racing elsewhere, and we’ll take a look at a few spots. At Santa Anita they have the Grade 3 Senorita. Island of Love comes in. off two troubled trips under Flavien Prat since coming to the states after racing in Italy. If she can avoid any trouble under new pilot Juan Hernandez she’ll be
Racing This Weekend
Belmont is underway and on Saturday they will run the Elusive Quality at 7 furlongs on the grass. A full field of 11 is expected to go and it looks like a competitive race. Value Proposition, a Belmont lover at 4 for 7 will likely be the favorite. I land on an interesting runner from Todd Pletcher. Toro Strike makes his second US start and second for Todd. He sent the horse to a stake
The Apple Blossom 2022
The Apple Blossom drew a small but quality field. The star is returning champ Letruska. She’s the speed and definitely has a tactical pace advantage. That said I land somewhere else, but we’ll come back to that. The first puzzle to me is this. Why is this one-million-dollar Grade 1 race run at a mile and a sixteenth with the short stretch and sixteenth pole fake finish line? Why not run this at a
The 2022 Lexington
The Lexington is the last chance to earn any points for the Kentucky Derby. The field of 11 that is scheduled to go is competitive. None of the horses look like the top Derby contenders but plenty can happen between now and then. Let’s run down the field and see who and what we have. Midnight Chrome looks too slow for me. He will break from the rail with Jose Ortiz riding but would
