Azeri Carries the Load
Azeri gets better with every start for trainer Laura De Seroux and the family of the late Allen Paulson.
The best female main track runner in the country--and it isn’t even close--is having to carry more weight as the Grade I victories continue.
Seeking her fourth consecutive victory in a Grade I in today’s $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park, Azeri will carry 125 pounds, meaning she will be spotting her four opponents from 8-13 pounds.
The weight assignment is three more than she carried in her victory in last month’s Milady Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Inglewood, eight more than when she won the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on April 6 and 10 more than she carried when starting her win streak in the Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita on March 10.
If she wins for the seventh time in eight starts, the 4-year-old daughter of Jade Hunter will become the highest-weighted Vanity winner since Paseana carried 127 in 1992.
Her main rival is Affluent, who has been the runner-up in the Apple Blossom and Milady and who has lost three in a row for trainer Ron McAnally after winning three consecutive graded stakes.
Starrer, making her first start for trainer John Shirreffs after running 11 times for Dave Hofmans, Collect Call and Terna will also run.
Long before the Vanity, Johannesburg will make his first start since his predictable nowhere finish in the Kentucky Derby, against Caller One and 14 others in the Golden Jubilee Stakes, a Group I, at Royal Ascot in England.
Race of the day: The fifth at Hollywood Park is a 5 1/2-furlong race for older fillies and mares and the race is the final leg of the Churchill Downs simulcast network pick four. The other races in the sequence are Churchill Downs’ 10th, the 12th from Calder and the ninth from Arlington Park.
Who’s hot: Voodoo Dancer. The classy Kingmambo filly will try for her eighth victory in 13 starts in the $150,000 Locust Grove Handicap at Churchill Downs.
Who’s not: The field in today’s second at Stockton. The eight Arabians are seven for 95.
Exotically speaking: A pick four using McAdam, J.T.’s Song, Expresso Bay and Calcupbound in the sixth, singling Top Honours in the seventh and American Pastime in the eighth and Confess, War Surgeon, Hit The Big Time, Brown’s Champion and Demon Bob in the ninth.
Winners (through Thursday): Previous day/meet total: 3/113. Money: Previous day/meet total: $18.20/$662.80. Total money bet: $722.