Horse racing is back and in full gear with live weekend cards at major tracks from coast to coast! Gulfstream Park in Florida continues to highlight the East Coast with Belmont Park in New York going live in early June. Churchill Downs in Louisville is offering live racing action and Santa Anita Park in Southern California has the West Coast covered.
This year’s Triple Crown racing action for the top three-year old colts in the nation gets underway on June 20 with the Belmont Stakes. However, Churchill is closing out May in grand fashion with a pair of major graded stakes races for some very talented fillies on this Saturday’s card.
Churchill Downs Featured Races, Saturday, May 30th, 2020
Winning Colors Stakes (4:08 p.m.ET)
The Winning Colors is a Grade 3 stakes race open to four year and older fillies and mares. This sprint on the dirt track at Churchill covers six furlongs.
The field is set for Saturday’s race with nine entries. All of these contenders carry a Horse Racing Nation rating in what should be a very strong field. The filly at the top of the list is Break Even. This four-year old Kentucky-bred filly is trained by Brad Cox. Jockey Joel Rosario will get the ride.
Coming off a recent victory at Oaklawn Park on April 18 in a six-furlong Allowance Claimer as a prep run, she should be the class of Saturday’s field. Over the course of her racing career, she has taken first in seven of nine events. This includes last May’s victory at Churchill in the Grade 2 Eight Belles Stakes.
Break Even – 2019 – The Coronation Cup Stakes
Another strong contender to watch in this race is trainer Mark Casse’s Spiced Perfection. She slipped to fourth in the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25. However, this five-year old California-bred mare has a long history of finishing in the money going all the way back to 2017. Javier Castellano will be her jockey in this Saturday’s race.
Mint Julep Stakes (6:16 p.m. ET)
As the main event on Saturday’s card at Churchill Downs, the Grade 3 Mint Julep Stakes covers 1 1/16 miles on turf. This event is open to four year and older fillies and mares.
A full field of 14 contenders are entered in this race and they all carry a HRN rating. Some of the top trainers in horse racing will be represented led by Chad Brown’s Altea with a HRN rating of 6.42 that is the best in the extended field.
This five-year old mare bred in France has finished in the money in six of her last seven races. She took second at Fair Grounds on March 21 is the ungraded Tom Benson Memorial Stakes at a distance of a mile. Joel Rosario will be the jockey of choice this time around.
Brown’s other entry in this race is Nay Lady Nay. She could offer quite a bit of value at longer odds in her 2020 racing debut. This four-year old Irish-bred filly closed out 2019 on a strong note with a victory at Churchill in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes on Nov. 29. She covered the 1 1/16 miles on dirt in 1:48.52 past Dalika and The Mackem Bullet.
