The weekend after a Triple Crown doesn’t produce much in the way of stakes racing action, but this Saturday, there are a few exciting stakes races. Belmont runs the Seek Again Stakes on Saturday and Santa Anita runs the Grade 3 Honeymoon and the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes. Then on Sunday, the Cinema Handicap happens at Santa Anita.
Check out top plays and Horse Racing Odds for the Top Stakes Races of the Week from Saturday, May 22nd to Sunday, May 23rd. You can also visit our Online Racebook to place your bets on active racetracks.
Top Stakes Races for the Week – Four Stakes Races Highlight the Weekend
Top Stakes Races
- When: Saturday, May 22 – Sunday, May 23
Belmont Park – Sunday, May 23
- Seek Again Stakes – 1 mile turf – $100,000
This is the first time Belmont is running the ungraded Seek Again Stakes. The race will go at 1 mile over Big Sandy’s turf course for a purse of $100,000. Although ungraded, we should expect plenty of talented runners to enter the starting gate. Trained by Bill Mott, Seek Again won the 2013 Grade 1 Hollywood, finished second behind Horse of the Year Wise Dan in the Grade 1 Turf Classic and then in 2014 won the Grade 2 Fourstardave Handicap.
Santa Anita Park – Sunday, May 23
- Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes – 1 1/8 miles turf – $100,000
Connections for at least 7 horses are planning to run in the Grade 3 Honeymoon on Saturday. Preakness winning trainer Mike McCarthy is back in California. McCarthy puts the saddle on Midnight Diva, who broke her maiden on dirt in her last. Sired by Midnight Lute and from a Dance With Ravens broodmare, Diva should love the grass.
Other contenders scheduled to run are Richard Mandella trained Golden, Phil D’Amato trained Going Global, and Madone from the Simon Callaghan barn. Madone has won 4-of-5. Her only loss was in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
- Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes – 1 1/16 miles dirt – $200,000
The week’s feature race is the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes at Santa Anita Park. Just 3 horses are confirmed for the race, As Time Goes By from the Bob Baffert barn, Ce Ce trained by Mike McCarthy, and Carla Gaines trained Miss Stormy D.
2020 Apple Blossom winner Ce Ce won her first race of 2021, an allowance, on April 17. No doubt, the McCarthy runner will go off the chalk on Saturday.
Santa Anita Park – Sunday, May 23
- Cinema Stakes – 1 1/8 miles turf – $100,000
No word yet on which horses will run in the 2021 Cinema Stakes. The race is exclusively for three-year-olds. Expect the best three-year old turf runners on the West Coast to step into the starting gate. Past winners have included Sharp Samurai, Hariboux, Neptune’s Storm, and River Boyne.
