The Grade 3, $100,000 Megahertz for fillies and mares at a mile on the grass is the featured race on the January 18 MLK Day holiday card at Santa Anita.
In a wide-open betting affair, 7/2 shot Glory leads the field of 12 following her third-place performance December 27 in the Grade 3 Frankel Stakes. The Jerry Hollendorfer trainee had won consecutive allowance races before that effort and will be in search of her first stakes victory, with three previous tries in a pair of grade 3 races and a grade 1. Glory has won 3 of 9 starts for earnings of $145,370. Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will ride breaking from post 2.
Stormy Lucy (4/1) finished second in the Frankel behind Glory and will try to turn the tables on that foe. The multiple graded stakes winner captured the Grade 1 Matriarch before the runner-up finish in the Frankel and appears poised to make her presence felt once again. The classy veteran performer, who has won 8 of 32 career races while competing almost exclusively in graded stakes over the past two years, is trained by Ed Moger who will give a leg up to another Hall of Fame jockey in Kent Desormeaux.
Gender Agenda (6/1) was the upset winner of the Frankel last time out and is a logical choice. Trained by Carla Gaines, the veteran mare unleashed a powerful closing kick to win by double digit odds. She will be a factor once again if able to repeat that effort, but will be a much shorter price.
There will always be Kentucky Derby entrants that would be much better suited to skip the race entirely and find a better spot if not for the gusto of their well-meaning owners, but the Road to the Derby point qualifying system has been remarkably efficient at making the race more of a level-playing field since its inception four years ago.
On Saturday at Keeneland, the featured race is the $250,000 Dixiana Elkhorn Stakes. Scheduled to be run at one mile on the turf, the Grade 2 event has drawn a field of eight colts and geldings.
With a largely underwhelming, and thus far, slow, group of three year-olds set to contest the 2016 Kentucky Derby, logical handicappers searching for a pick outside of the undefeated and likely highly-favored Nyquist may have already begun the hand-wringing process.
On Friday at Oaklawn Park, the featured race is the $600,000 Apple Blossom Stakes. Restricted to fillies and mares, the Grade 1 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth on the main track and has drawn a field of six.
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