Jeremy Plonk: 17 Stakes in 17 Sentences | Saturday, March 22, 2025

Saturday’s play list is full of popular tunes, none more well-known than the $1 million Louisiana Derby. Whether you’re dialed into Fair Grounds, Turfway, Santa Anita, Gulfstream or more, we’ve got you covered. Let’s get on the fast track to the weekend.

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2:59 pm ET | Laurel Park | Race 7 | $100K Beyond the Wire Stakes
Three of these return from the Wide Country Stakes, where #2 Ourdaydreaminggirl was rallying well for fourth, gets pace help here from new shooter #1 Central Casting, and now benefits from the second wire finish line as the trip extends a mile.

3:27 pm ET | Laurel Park | Race 8 | $100K Private Terms Stakes
Maryland’s first 2-turn Preakness prep lacks the winners of its lead-in stakes this season, so recent check-getters #7 Sacred Thunder and #8 Pay Billy could prove best, the latter my narrow top selection with more upside as they both stretch out.

3:50 pm ET | Gulfstream Park | Race 7 | $115K Texas Glitter Stakes
All eyes are on the 3-year-old return of Royal Palm Juvenile winner and Royal Ascot Windsor Castle runner-up #7 Gabaldon’s first start since June, but #6 No Evidence will be aggressively ridden just to his inside and comes off an impressive score worth re-backing.

4:13 pm ET | Turfway Park | Race 8 | $250K Rushaway Stakes
Well-drawn #2 Urban Planner has won 2 straight allowance routes at the meet and owns the strongest BRIS late pace figures in a race with some stretch-out sprinters and late question marks.

4:32 pm ET | Fair Grounds | Race 8 | $150K Benson Memorial Stakes
#10 Wild About Hilary scratched last week at Oaklawn and opted for this spot instead of tussling with Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, giving her a chance to control these turfers every jump of the way under hustling rider Jareth Loveberry.

4:43 pm ET | Turfway Park | Race 9 | $250K Animal Kingdom Stakes
Local sprint ace #4 Coming in Hot cuts back after an unsuccessful, but thankfully untaxing, test for distance and figures to get back to his winning ways against the hard-raced, well-traveled #7 Kale’s Angel.

4:46 pm ET | Oaklawn Park | Race 7 | $175K Purple Martin Stakes
A flashy pace is anticipated with Saratoga stakes winners #1 Accelerating and #4 Kimchi Cat both firing fresh, leaving the sprint-route-sprint form cycle for #3 Kentucky Smokeshow on upset alert.

5:04 pm ET | Fair Grounds | Race 9 | $500K New Orleans Classic
Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Champion 3-Year-Old Colt #7 Sierra Leone makes his season debut and note he’s 3-for-3 in the first start of his form cycle so far in his career, while getting Lasix and a potentially strong pace scenario to further aid his cause.

5:13 pm ET | Turfway Park | Race 10 | $300K Kentucky Cup Classic
Capacity, quality group offers one of the best betting races of the day and I’ll give a longshot win/place look to #1 Highestdistinction, who was too close to the pace last time and should finish with more flair with a rider change to Adam Beschizza (use in exactas with #10, #3).

5:36 pm ET | Fair Grounds | Race 10 | $300K Muniz Memorial Stakes
#6 Spirit of St Louis is a deserving favorite and never misfires, so we’ll use that one on top of a couple of price chances, #3 What Say Thee and #4 Cameo Performance, who are well-drawn in a field with some outside speed that should hum along early.

5:43 pm ET | Turfway Park | Race 11 | $300K Bourbonette Oaks
Just love the form cycle for #7 As Catch Can, who goes sprint-to-route while second off the layoff and she’s got proven Tapeta form at Woodbine, while owing a ton of respect to #11 White Rocks and her freakish performances at the meeting.

6:08 pm ET | Fair Grounds | Race 11 | $400K Fair Grounds Oaks
The last time to catch #3 Ahavah at a fair price might be here as the kid sister to star filly Vahva takes a bold bite of the apple off her debut sprint and faces #7 Good Cheer, the unbeaten early favorite for the Kentucky Oaks.

6:25 pm ET | Turfway Park | Race 12 | $777K Jeff Ruby
New series speed from #2 Charlie’s to Blame and #8 Innovator shakes up the carousel finish from the John Battaglia Memorial and gives late-running, fresh-faced favorite #9 Poster the best chance late over a track where he’s trained all winter, as well as late rocket-launching maiden winner #4 Final Gambit for a Godolphin-Juddmonte class exacta.

6:25 pm ET | Oaklawn Park | Race 10 | $500K Essex Stakes
#4 Patriot Spirit gets pretty bold on the lead and could find himself in upset position as likely solid favorite #5 Kinetic finds ways to make it more interesting than it should be with his stretch antics at short prices.

6:42 pm ET | Fair Grounds | Race 12 | $1M Louisiana Derby
There could be an overheated pace at 1-3/16 miles that beckons #2 Chunk of Gold and #10 Hypnus as the closers to fear, but I have much respect for #1 John Hancock and we’ve seen too many times that these big racing days wind up with speed-favoring tracks.

7:00 pm ET | Santa Anita Park | Race 7 | $100K San Luis Rey Stakes
Phil D’Amato trainees #3 Easter, #6 Gold Phoenix and # Divine Propos all look like the same horse and while none are projected to be at their absolute best going 1-1/2 miles, I’ll lean to #6 Gold Phoenix, who has been training quite well at 1st.tv on video.

8:00 pm ET | Turf Paradise | Race 9 | $50K Phoenix Gold Cup
Favored #1 Redline has won 3 Turf Paradise stakes in as many tries, but exits a bang-up second to Jaxon Travler in which that consistent runner bounced terribly last week at Oaklawn – so give me the freshened #5 Coastal Jazz (7-2 ML) for a 45% winning jockey-trainer combo at TuP.

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