Jon Stettin’s Blog

The Awesome Again Stakes
Santa Anita the host of this year’s Breeders’ Cup opens Friday. On Saturday they run The Awesome Again which has served as a prep and prelude to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. While it may be true a few horses are heading into The Classic fresh this year, The Awesome Again is an interesting race and horses coming out of it going into The Breeders’ Cup Classic will have the benefit of a recent start over

The Noble Damsel
A lot of people will be watching Parx and The Pensylvania Derby on Saturday. I will be as well bit I will be more focused wagering on The Noble Damsel at Aqueduct where I think a filly who will be a bit overlooked and a nice price is sitting on a big race. This is an important time of the year to be paying attention to the stake races and workouts of the horses who

The Grade 3 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational
That was a tough beat last week with Wakanaka. It is never fun losing, but it is harder to swallow when you think you had the best horse. I think Wakanaka was clearly best for a few reasons, but I will just turn the page. The Jockey Club Oaks is a mile and three eighths on the grass. It is for three-year-old fillies and 7 are scheduled to line up. This is not the strongest

The Grade 2 Ladies Turf Sprint, When a Sprint is not a Sprint
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time calling any race at Kentucky Downs a sprint. I don’t care if it is 4 furlongs, over that course to me nothing is a sprint. That includes The Grade 2 Ladies Turf Sprint to be run on Saturday. A nice cool mil purse drew a field of 9 to race six and a half furlongs through the meadows and over the hills about 35

The 2023 Pacific Classic
The Pacific Classic drew a full field of 11 including three promising three-year-olds tackling older foes as the Breeders’ Cup Classic get closer. With Arcangelo stamping himself at the head of the three-year-old class, at least for now with a win in The Travers at Saratoga over Mage, National Treasure and Forte, it will be interesting to see how these west coast youngsters fare against older runners and what that does if anything to shake