Twinspires.com Weekend Stakes: Where To Watch
During this weekend before the Christmas holiday, there will be just one graded stakes taking place, and that will be the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity on Hollywood Park’s Saturday card. The $750,000 1 1/16-mile test for juveniles will close out the season for 2-year-old graded stakes, and serve as the final graded stakes of the Holly Park meet, before the circuit returns to Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
Bob Baffert is gunning for a sixth win in the CashCall and brings in three of the 13 entrants in his attempt to improve on his own record of five wins in this race, the last of which came in 2009 with Lookin At Lucky. With three different owners, Baffert has entered Pegram, Watson & Weitman’s G1 Del Mar Futurity hero Drill, Arnold Zetcher’s stakes winner Liaison and Sky Kingdom, a recent maiden winner owned by Westrock Stables. Drill’s last two attempts at a mile-and-a-sixteenth have been dismal, albeit against tough company. Another below-par performance would probably send him to races with shorter distances. Liaison, a son of the recently deceased Indian Charlie, won the Real Quiet on Nov. 12, besting another entrant here, Rousing Sermon, by a half-length. Indian Charlie and Real Quiet were both trained by Baffert.
Another key contender, Majestic City, set the pace for a half-mile in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf before fading to a nearly last-place finish, but he is proven on the Hollywood Cushion Track with three wins to his credit.
Empire Way, a full brother to likely three-year-old filly champion Royal Delta, won his career debut on Nov. 13 and came back 11 days later in the G3 Hollywood Prevue. He turned in a dull performance there; still, he’s one to keep an eye on.
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