Notes on the Lane’s End (G2) Program
March 21st, 2008By Jude T. Feld
Lane’s End Stakes (G2) day is the one day every year that all American horseplayers focus their attention on Turfway Park. With five stakes carded – one with Kentucky Oaks (G1) implications and two steppingstones to the Kentucky Derby (G1) – it is an afternoon that will certainly have an effect on a player’s wagering in the near future. The weather should be decent and the Polytrack, as usual, will be fast.
The Queen Stakes, TURFWAY PARK’s 8TH RACE, kicks off the stakes festivities. GEM SLEUTH comes off a nice win at Gulfstream Park, has worked a bullet :47 3/5 half since that race and gets the services of one of the best jockeys in the world, Edgar Prado. Her late-running style promotes her chances as well.
U.S. CAVALRY won the Prevue Stakes at today’s distance earlier in the meeting. He regressed when trying a mile in the WEBN Stakes but returned off that race to win an allowance sprint. It would not be surprising to see the Ken and Sarah Ramsey red and white silks in the winners’ circle after the Hansel Stakes, TURFWAY PARK’s 9TH RACE.
Former Kentucky Governor Brereton C. Jones’ stable has been en fuego lately, winning races all over the country. His LOVERS SPAT prepped nicely in the Valdale Stakes last time out, a race she may have needed. She gets two more pounds from nemesis VALENTINE FEVER today and might turn the tables on that foe in the Bourbonette Oaks (G3), TURFWAY PARK’s 10TH RACE.
On paper, the Rushaway Stakes, TURFWAY PARK’s 11th RACE, looks like a match race between BIG GLEN and ICABAD CRANE. The former won the WEBN and then went unplaced in the Battaglia Memorial, both run at Turfway. He will need to be at his all-time best to win today. The latter is undefeated, winning a sprint in the mud and a route on a fast track. Horses with that type of versatility are usually top class and ICABAD CRANE’s trainer Graham Motion is far from a headless horseman.
The $500,000 Lane’s End (G2) goes as TURFWAY PARK’s 12TH RACE. HALO NAJIB attracts Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux to Kentucky. He was aboard the son of Halo’s Image when he won the Darley Ocala Breeders Sales Championship on a synthetic surface. Unplaced with Rene Douglas in the saddle in the Fountain of Youth, the Dale Romans trainee looks to rebound and has a :58 4/5 breeze over the track to suggest he might. RACECAR RHAPSODY has been facing the best three-year-olds in the land with some success. He is dangerous off the bench with his regular rider, Robby Albarado, in the irons. TURF WAR was favored in the Southwest at Oaklawn, now a “key†Derby prep, but he failed to fire. The half-brother of Grasshopper is reunited with jockey Patrick Husbands, who has won two races on the colt, and if not hindered by his horrible post, he could have a say in the outcome.
