Kurilov looks best of Brown’s U.N. team

Saturday’s stakes schedule is busy, with potentially a little something for every horseplayer. It’s Queen’s Plate Day at Woodbine, with that $1 million event topping a card that also includes three graded stakes. It’s United Nations Day at Monmouth, with that Grade 1, $300,000 fixture supported by two other graded stakes. It’s Summit of Speed Day at Gulfstream, led by the Grade 2, $250,000 Princess Rooney and the Grade 3, $250,000 Smile Sprint. And there is an appealing renewal of the Grade 2, $250,000 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont.

United Nations Stakes

Trainer Chad Brown has “only” four of the nine entrants in this one, and since this is a turf stakes, you could probably limit your search for the winner with his charges.

Money Multiplier is obvious as he comes off a win in the Monmouth Stakes in his return to the United States, suggesting he has regained top form. He is meeting a deeper field this time, however, and is no bargain, parimutuelly speaking. Funtastic is on the other end of the spectrum as he seems oddly overmatched for a Brown stakes entrant.

I took a long look at Silverwave, a Group 1 stakes winner in France who won a Group 2 stakes there last year over Talismanic, who went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf. But ultimately I couldn’t go with him off his empty effort at odds-on last time at Belmont, even if he was three wide on the far turn.

Kurilov is the Brown entrant I want. Kurilov got up to be a dead-heat winner in the race Silverwave comes out of with Profiteer, who is also in the U.N., but Kurilov was more compromised that day by the deliberate pace. He disliked the off going two starts back at Churchill, but his narrowly beaten second in the Gulfstream Park Turf three back, when he was also pace compromised and split Heart to Heart and Hi Happy, was terrific. Notably, Heart to Heart came back to win the Maker’s 46 Mile and just miss in the Shoemaker Mile with Beyer Speed Figures of 105 and 106, and Hi Happy came back to win the Pan American and Man o’ War with 106 and 104 Beyers, and finish a fine third in the Manhattan.

Smile Sprint Stakes

X Y Jet was brutally unlucky to lose two of the last three runnings of the Dubai Golden Shaheen by a grand total of less than a halflength, so he is more than good enough to win this. In addition, it is highly unlikely he will take anywhere near as long to find his best post-Dubai form as he did after his first Golden Shaheen outing, from which he exited with a knee chip. X Y Jet, nailed in the last jumps of the latest Golden Shaheen by Mind Your Biscuits, who came back to be an excellent second in the Met Mile, is apparently healthy this time.

That said, I’m still going against X Y Jet, mainly because I feel he had no business losing his latest start in Dubai, even narrowly. Subsequent performances by U.S. stakes horses have validated the suspicion that there was an inside speed bias at Meydan that night. X Y Jet was pretty much with the flow of the bias, while Mind Your Biscuits was completely against it. Moreover, X Y Jet should see pace pressure at some stage Saturday from Classic Rock, who, while not a strict need-the-lead type, must keep X Y Jet honest if he is to have any chance at winning.

Mr. Jordan projects to sit a sweet stalking trip and is my play. Mr. Jordan has done most of his racing at middle distances and has never started at this six-furlong trip. But he handled the cutback to seven furlongs nicely most recently to be a decisive winner of the Big Drama Stakes after establishing good early position. I suspect at this stage of his career going even a bit shorter might suit him.

Queen’s Plate

Plate Trial winner Telekinesis and Woodbine Oaks one-two finishers Dixie Moon and Wonder Gadot figure to be tough, but I’m taking a flyer with Silent Poet, who should be a price, if not as big as his 30-1 morning-line price.

Silent Poet was solid in his two wins this year, including a handy score last time over 12 opponents, nine of whom were older horses. He’s back in with 3-year-olds, and I think he’ll love the added distance.