Last big weekend before the Breeders’ Cup

Plenty of stakes action on tap for the weekend, with 17 graded races scheduled at Keeneland (nine), Belmont Park (five) and Santa Anita (three). The ten Grade 1s are the most of any weekend outside the Breeders’ Cup. Here’s a look at five of the more significant races. Phoenix Stakes (G2) (Keeneland, Fri.) – Promises Fulfilled (M/L 8-5), who has retooled his career as a top sprinter, takes on hard-nosed older horses Whitmore (9-5) and Limousine Liberal (2-1) at six furlongs. Both Promises Fulfilled (H. Allen Jerkens Memorial) and Whitmore (Forego) are coming off Grade 1 wins at Saratoga.

Shadwell Mile G1 (Keeneland, Sat.) – Year in and year out, the Shadwell Mile features one of the strongest turf fields

in the country. Heart to Heart (7-2) and Voodoo Song (6-1) are the only entrants to win Grade 1s in 2018, but both are coming off decisive losses at Saratoga. Analyze It (9-2) returns to what is probably his best distance after being out-finished in his last three starts (twice by Catholic Boy) going longer. Synchrony (8-1), a winner of four graded races this year, goes for his first Grade 1. Six-year-old Almanaar (9-2), a Grade 1 winner at five, exits a second in the Arlington Million. Qurbaan (5-1) was a sharp winner of the Bernard Baruch in his North American debut.

Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1) (Santa Anita, Sat) - Ace West Coast sprinters Ransom the Moon and Roy H – last year’s champion sprinter – resume their rivalry at Santa Anita. Ransom the Moon holds a 2-1 edge. Most recently, the pair ran 1-2 in the Bing Crosby, a race Ransom the Moon also won in 2017.

Beldame Stakes (G1) (Belmont, Sat.) – Farrell (51) and Wow Cat (5-2) face off for the third time today. Farrell necked his Chilean-bred rival in the Shuvee (G3) on July 29, but both subsequently finished up the track behind Abel Tasman and Elate in the Personal Ensign. Second choice Divine Miss Grey (7-2) faces tougher after airing in a minor stakes at Parx.

Spinster Stakes (G1) (Keeneland, Sun.) – Eskimo Kisses makes her first start since her smashing 6½ length win in the Alabama. Blue Prize comes in off Grade 2 and Grade 3 scores at Churchill Downs. Chocolate Martini has run credibly against the best sophomore fillies. Bested Eskimo Kisses in Fair Grounds Oaks. Five of 11 entrants are 3-year-olds.

For Discreet Lover and Vasilika, the slipper fits

Most people who follow racing like a good rags-toriches story, with Seabiscuit and John Henry probably being the most famous examples. But there have been plenty of others. Last weekend, for example, Discreet Lover and Vasilika – two of racing’s foot soldiers for whom a Grade 1 win seemed inconceivable not so long ago – swept to victory, respectively, in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Rodeo Drive Stakes.

Discreet Lover has become a familiar presence in New York graded stakes over the past 14 months. Since upsetting the Excelsior Stakes at 7-1 back in April, however, the 5-yearold son of Repent had not been given much respect at the windows. In his last five starts prior to the Saturday, the Florida-bred had been dispatched at average odds of 41-1 and – despite finishing well in the last four – had been beaten a total of 37 lengths.

Dismissed at 45-1 on Saturday, Discreet Lover – staying well off a suicidal pace set by 3-5 favorite Diversify – commenced a sustained rally on the turn that brought him into contention in mid-stretch and, in the final jump, past Thunder Snow for a neck victory. From an odds perspective, it was one of the biggest upsets in the 100year history of the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

While Discreet Lover was getting drubbed in his first Grade 1 attempts during the 2017 Saratoga meet, Vasilika was still in and out of the claiming ranks. In fact, the daughter of the Skip Away stallion Skipshot was claimed four times between January 2017 and February 2018, at prices ranging between $20k and $42k.

Since being claimed and transferred to the barn of Hall of Fame conditioner Jerry Hollendorfer in February, Vasilika has won seven consecutive races, the last two in graded competition. Her half-length victory Saturday in the Rodeo Drive completed her remarkable transition from mid-level claimer to Grade 1 winner in the space of just seven months.

Vasilika is one of only 65 foals sired by Skipshot in his five years at stud. She is also the only Grade 1-winning tail-male descendant of Skip Away, as well as what will almost certainly be one of the last stakes winners at any level representing the male line of the great Damascus.