Strong Summer Racing Schedule Set to Begin

Steve's Private Rankings for the Top Horses in Eight Divisions

A Column by Steve Davidowitz
June 20, 2007

Now that a most entertaining Triple Crown season is complete, American racing will move in several different directions with the beginning of summer this week.

Not far down the road is the great mid-season race meet at Saratoga (from July 25 to September 3). This meet will attract large crowds every day and will bring the top three-year-olds together again in the $1 million Travers Stakes (G1) on August 25, while providing a multitude of forums for top-notch turf horses, fillies and mares and the best bred two-year-olds in the world.

To a slightly lesser degree, Del Mar on the Pacific Ocean will operate a similar boutique race meet (from July 18 to September 5), in which there will 19 graded stakes, including the $1 million Pacific Classic (G1) on August 19 and plenty of opportunities for classy juveniles to get their careers underway.

This year, Del Mar will also become the sixth American racetrack to replace its traditional dirt track with an artificial racing surface, joining Turfway Park, Hollywood Park, Woodbine, Keeneland and Arlington Park, with Santa Anita due to unveil its artificial track this fall.

In the meantime, Belmont Park is already pushing into its high-class spring-summer season with major stakes for every division, while Hollywood Park is set to explode with a summer festival of 12 stakes that can be favorably compared to the outstanding Ascot meeting in progress this week in Berkshire, England.

Here's the Hollywood stakes schedule for Saturday, June 30 through Sunday, July 8 with total purses worth $4.25 million.

June 30: the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) for three-year-olds and up, 1 1/4 miles on the artificial main (cushion) track.

June 30: the $250,000 American Invitational Handicap (G2) for three-year-olds and up, 1 1/8 miles on the turf.

June 30: the $100,000 Landaluce Stakes for two-year-old fillies, 6 furlongs on the main track.

July 1: the $150,000 Beverly Hills Handicap (G2) for fillies and mares three years old and up, 1 1/4 miles on the turf.

July 4: the $100,000 added Hollywood Juvenile Championship (G2) for two-year-olds, 6 furlongs on the main track.

July 6: the $1 million Cash Call Invitational Mile Stakes (G2) for fillies and mares three years old and up, one mile on the turf.

July 6: the $150,000 A Gleam Invitational Handicap (G2) for fillies and mares three years old and up, 7 furlongs on the main track.

July 6: the $100,000 Flawlessly Stakes for three-year-old fillies, one mile on the turf.

July 7: the $750,000 American Oaks Invitational (G1) for three-year-old fillies, 1 1/4 miles on the turf.

July 7: the $300,000 Triple Bend Invitational Handicap (G1) for three-year-olds and up, 7 furlongs on the main track.

July 7: the $300,000 Vanity Invitational Handicap (G1) for fillies and mares three years old and up, 1 1/8 miles on the main track.

July 8: the $75,000 added Robert K. Kerlan Memorial Handicap for three-year-olds and up, 6 furlongs on the turf.

Belmont Park, by the way, will offer eight stakes during the same timeframe, including a pair of Grade 1 races on June 30: the $400,000 Suburban Handicap for three-year-olds and up at 1 1/4 miles that could mark the return of 2006 Horse of the Year Invasor; and the $250,000 Mother Goose Stakes for three-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles, all of whom won't miss Rags to Riches, who is resting up after her extraordinary victory in the $1 million Belmont Stakes (G1) on June 9.

Churchill Downs, on the other hand, has no more major stakes to offer until its fall meet. But that is hardly true for picturesque Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

Monmouth Park, scheduled to host the first two-day Breeders' Cup in history on October 26 and 27, will present a scattering of stakes for every division during the summer. The best of these will be the $750,000 United Nations Handicap for three-year-olds and up at 1 3/16 miles on the turf on July 7 and the $1 million Haskell Invitational for three-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on August 5. There will also be 12 other graded events leading towards the Breeders' Cup.

Arlington Park, north of Chicago, unveiled a Polytrack racing surface this year, and is yet another American track with its share of high-class summer events, most notably the world-famous Arlington Million (G1) that will be the centerpiece for a quartet of high-quality turf events on August 11.

Calder racetrack in South Florida is a well-known forum for Florida-bred juveniles and top-class sprinters, some of whom will sharpen their Breeders' Cup credentials. On Saturday, July 7, for example, Calder will host seven sprint stakes worth an aggregate $2 million.

Louisiana Downs, not known for ultra high-class racing, does have a bread and butter schedule of moderate class stakes throughout the summer. But it also will present the $500,000 Super Derby (G2) and four other $200,000 stakes on September 22 as potential preps for mid-western based Breeders' Cup contenders.

With so many tracks in action at the same time, with so many important stakes to be run throughout the country, horseplayers might find it useful to check back here each week for analysis of the best and worst performances from coast to coast. In addition, I annually put together a series of rankings of the best horses in every division and modify them as the summer progresses.

Quite frequently, a working knowledge of the leading performers in each division helps to point out important class relief when the highest ranked horses appear in the company lines of low profile horses in stakes and allowance races from coast to coast.

My rankings are based on a wide range of performance characteristics including speed figures, pace ratings, the quality of competition and the horse's weight carrying history. In fact, my numbers are expressed as a weight assignment in pounds, as if each horse was going to compete at a specific distance against other rated horses in the division. Here are my weighted rankings for eight divisions, with more to come when filly sprinters, three-year-old turf horses and emerging two-year-olds begin to sort themselves out.

Three-year-olds, 1 1/4 miles on dirt (top 22 rated):

Curlin (129); Street Sense (129); Rags to Riches, filly, (124); Hard Spun (122); Chelokee (120); Tiago (120); Sightseeing (120); C P West (117); Zanjero (117); Sam P (116); Circular Quay (116); Any Given Saturday (116); Nobiz Like Shobiz (116); Scat Daddy (116); Delightful Kiss (115); Imawildandcrazyguy (115); Dominican (115); Great Hunter (114); Song of Navarone (114); Sedgefield (113); Slew's Tizzy (113); Cowtown Cat (112).

Please note: Fillies and mares are entitled to a five-pound weight concession when meeting males, thus Rags To Riches actually is the theoretical co-high weight in my three-year-old rankings at this distance.

Three-year-olds, one mile on dirt (top 8 rated):

Hard Spun (123); Teuflesberg (118); King of the Roxy (117); Most Distinguished (117); Time To Get Even (117); Stormello (116); Desert Code (115); Albertus Maximus (114).

Three-year-old fillies, 1 1/8 miles on dirt (top 6 rated):

Rags to Riches (130); Cotton Blossom (122); Octave (120); Magnificence (120); Boca Grande (119), Dream Rush (117).

Fillies and mares four years old and up, 1 1/8 miles (top 5 rated):

Indian Vale (120); Balance (119); Nashoboa's Key (118); Ermine (116); Take D'Tour (116).

Four-year-olds and up, one mile on the turf (top 10 rated):

The Tin Man (123); Kip Deville (122); My Typhoon, filly, (118); Therecomesatiger (117); Jet Propulsion (117); Remarkable News (117); Wait A While, filly, (116); Karen's Caper, filly, 116; Showing Up (116); Quite A Bride, filly, (115).

Four-year-olds and up, 1 1/4 miles on the turf (top 12 rated):

Better Talk Now, (125); The Tin Man (125); After Market (124); English Channel (122); Lava Man (121); Shakis (121); Einstein (120); Sky Conqueror (118); Jambalaya (117); Obrigado (117); Stormin Away (117); Cosmonaut (116).

Four-year-olds and up, 6 furlongs (top 10 rated):

Smokey Stover (127); Fabulous Strike (124); Songster (124); Kelly's Landing (123); Bordonaro (121); Thor's Echo (120); Siren Lure (119); Will He Shine (118); Suave Jazz (117); Indian Flare, filly, (114).

Four-year-olds and up, 1 1/4 miles on dirt (top 16 rated):

Invasor, (133); Discreet Cat (126); Pyramid Tap (126); Corinthian, (125); Lawyer Ron (124); Lava Man (123); Flashy Bull (123); Buzzards Bay (122); ,Magna Graduate (121); Diamond Stripes (120); Molengao (120); Bob and John (119); Boboman (117); Sun King (116); Master Command (116); Wanderin Boy (115).

As for the most outstanding jockeys and trainers through the midpoint of the 2007 season, my top five are:

Steve Davidowitz will be at Emerald Downs on Saturday, June 23 for a handicapping seminar and to sign copies of his bestselling new book, The Best and Worst of Thoroughbred Racing. He will also be at Hollywood Park on Saturday, June 30 for a Hollywood Gold Cup handicapping seminar and book signing.

Steve Davidowitz has written two highly acclaimed books on Thoroughbred racing---Betting Thoroughbreds and The Best and Worst of Thoroughbred Racing. He also is a regular contributor to Daily Racing Form's Simulcast Weekly and DRF Plus and his columns appear in the Bodog Racebook each week.