A full field of twelve is scheduled to compete in Saturday's $100,000 Donald Levine Memorial Handicap, a seven-furlong contest for three-year-olds and up at Parx Racing. The 121 pound highweight is Traffic Light, a locally-based five-year-old gelding.
Traffic Light, trained by Alfredo Velazquez with regular ride John Bisono named back aboard the son of Peace Rules, has been installed as the 5-2 morning line favorite and will break from the outside in the field of twelve. Seven of his eight career victories have come at the Pennsylvania racetrack and he was last seen winning an allowance/optional claiming race at Monmouth Park in front-running style.
Second choice on the morning line at 7-2 is Edge of Reality who will be making his first start for popular trainer Graham Motion. The four-year-old son of Lawyer Ron will be making his first start since a sixth-place finish last December and has been training steadily at Fair Hill for his return. As a sophomore, he won the Smarty Jones Stakes (G3) at Parx by a neck. Kendrick Carmouche will be in the irons for the first time.
Also in the field is Falling Sky, a son of Lion Heart, who was an early contender on the Triple Crown trail in 2013. The multiple Grade 3 winner is trained by George Weaver and will be ridden by Edgar Prado. Tabbed at 4-1, he will try to improve off of a tenth-place finish on the Derby undercard in May. He has been beaten by double-digit lengths in both starts this year since winning the Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes in February.
Players trying to look beyond prohibitive favorite Tepin in the September 17 Woodbine Mile will surely have their work cut out for them as the superstar mare tackles seven rivals on the grass.
The second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown goes Tuesday night from Fort Erie race track, where Sir Dudley Digges will try to take another step toward Canadian racing history.
On Sunday, Woodbine will host the $1 million Queen’s Plate Stakes, Canada’s most prestigious race. Restricted to horses foaled in Canada, the classic mile and a quarter contest has drawn a field of thirteen three-year-olds.
A spectacular card of graded stakes action has been assembled for Saturday at Belmont Park and the $1 million Ogden Phipps is shaping up to be one of the most competitive races of the day. The Grade 1 event for fillies and mares will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth.
2016 Woodbine Mile Picks and Preview
16 September 2016Players trying to look beyond prohibitive favorite Tepin in the September 17 Woodbine Mile will surely have their work cut out for them as the superstar mare tackles seven rivals on the grass....
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