Grade 2, $200,000 Raffian Stakes They will gather a strong field of 11 women, including three billionaires, during Belmont at the Big A meeting on Saturday. One of them is My mane is squeezedwon eight Grade 2 Belles stakes announced by Sysco more than a year ago, and the third-year Fasig-Tipton Dogwood stakes last September. My mane was scratched from last week’s Grade 1 Derby City Dessach after it was announced by the Kendall Jackson Winery in Churchill Downs for this easy place. Another billionaire is like that sterling silverthe five-time stakes winner who recently won the Biogio Rosestakes at Ruffian’s distance. Morning matcha He is the third of seven-figure earners, and last August his recent recent victory appeared in Mrs. Penny Stakes. Of the trio, only Sterling Silver wins, but many others have recently started. Heading number I won the Top Flight Stakes with Aqueduct four weeks ago, This is the kicker and Take the Moneyhoney Both won a one mile allowance race around one turn. This is the same configuration as Ruffian. Gun song There was a solid 2024 campaign that ended with seven finishes, first or second in nine races. In one of them, the Grade 1 Cochirion stakes, the gun song that missed the neck, missed the horse Sopedo Coanna. Catherine Wheel Four weeks ago he finished third in the Heavenly Cause Stakes at Laurel Park, winning this one-turn mile trip with Aqueduct just before. Amazing movement He won the Grade 3 Royal Delta Stakes in February and finished fifth in the Grade 1 decisive Racing Madison Stakes last month. Jody’s Pride He won the 2024 Busher stakes at Aqueduct in Ruffian’s distance, but missed it with his neck alone in the Grade 2 insider stake presented by Myracehorse in January, but he didn’t win in four races. Claret Belet She won four of her 11 races in her career, but is her first time running in a stakes race in her class.
Winning candidate:
sterling silver is a six-year-old filly with a fairly solid record of nine wins in 29 races and earning $1,006,051. Even better, her main track record at Aqueduct was five wins, three seconds and three thirds in 12 races, and she finished third in more than three years ago. In the fall of 2023, Sterling Silver finished first in the track’s brave Bloom Stakes but was disqualified due to interference and placed second. She then won the Iroquois stakes with Aqueduct with her career-high 102 horse speed figures, which improved her 103 last March. Sterling Silver won the John Stone Mile Handicap at Saratoga last summer. Returning from a rest for over three months in early April, Sterling Silver won the Biogio ball stakes at the same distance as the Ruffian, earning a 101 figure. Sterling Silver is very likely to improve that number in her second start. In particular, Javier Castellano, who was riding in three of his final four victories, is in the saddle.
My mane is squeezed He attended last Saturday at Churchill Downs’ $1 million Derby City Disaff, but the trainer’s microphone maker decided to ship her from his Kentucky base to New York, not only because this is a Grade 2 race and an easier place, but also because he won three of the four races in the water construction industry. Last year, Philly’s best efforts came when they won eight Bells Stakes in May and Dogwood Stakes in September, both of which placed a bet at Churchill Downs. Both of these wins were made on seven furlongs, but my mane was perfect in two races at this miles distance, with Maids of the Fall 2023 Mist Stakes and Maddie May betting in February 2024. Emery, who came in sixth and fifth place respectively, was behind Topsprinter Copion in the Grade 1 Derby City Disaf Stakes last weekend. Manny Franco returns after last month’s third-place effort, returning to Aqueduct, back to a one-mile distance she has never lost, my mane squeeze is a strong contender to win.
Catherine Wheel She never finished below a third in seven races, and like the two horses above, she really likes to run with Aqueduct. She won two of three races on the track, and more importantly, both races were at this distance of one mile. After winning two starts in March, Katherine Wheel was shipped to Laurel Park, taking a career-high 100-horse speed figure, and for the first time he stepped into the stakes company, taking second place, arriving within half of the winners, and third in the stakes stakes of the heavenly cause. That was her first time trying out a “off” (muddy) truck. So, not only did he return to the mile of a turn in this race, but because Raffian was expected to have a fast track, it seems that Katherine Wheel has a solid chance to be there with my mane and sterling silver and finish line.
Honorable mention goes to three horses. Gun song, Jody’s Pride, and Take the Moneyhoneyall three of them have the opportunity to win a part of the wallet by finishing second, perhaps second, but my estimate is much less likely to win than any of the three horses mentioned above. Gun Song had a very nice three-year-old campaign, with a career-high 102-speed figure after Thorpedo Anna’s Horse Of Thorpedo Anna at the Cotyrion Stakes in September. However, in three of the last four races of 2024, Gun Song, a gradual stakes, lost ground after finishing second in the stretch, bringing an overall record of 3 wins, 4 seconds, with nine starts in the year. Jody’s Pride won the Busher Stakes last March on this one-turn mile trip with Aqueduct in a race restricted to a 3-year-old. She missed the neck of an insider stake in January at Gulfstream Park, starting her 4-year-old season, earning a career-high 103 figure, but didn’t run at the end of the five innings at the Azeri Stakes when she saw March 8th. She won three of her four races. This is the best on this one-turn mile trip with Aqueduct with 100 Equibase Speed figures in March, but she’s been rising quite a bit in her class to this Grade 2 stakes.
The rest of the field (highest horse rate speed map): There’s Claret Beret (99), dazzling movements (95), headline numbers (93), and kicker (88) here.
Earn candidates in order of priority:
sterling silver
My mane is squeezed
Catherine Wheel
