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On Saturday at Santa Anita, the featured race is the $100,000 Affirmed Stakes. Restricted to three-year-olds, the Grade 3 contest will be held at a mile and a sixteenth on the main track and has drawn a field of five colts.

A tough field of veteran runners will line up for the Gold Cup, chasing a spot in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Fortunately for racing fans, Songbird's hiatus was brief; not so fortunately for her six rivals June 18 in the $200,000 Grade 2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita, the champ is back and ready to roll.

The field, along with morning line odds, has been set for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 11 at Belmont Park. The mile and a half contest, known as the Grade 1 “Test of Champions”, has drawn a field of thirteen colts and geldings.

With improbable longshots like Sarava, Da’ Tara, Drosselmeyer, and Ruler on Ice winning the Belmont Stakes in the new millennium, it’s difficult to blame handicappers looking for a fat price in the 2016 renewal slated for June 11.

On Saturday at Santa Anita, the featured race is the $200,000 Snow Chief Stakes which will highlight the state’s successful breeding program. Limited to three-year-olds sired by a California-based stallion, the mile and an eighth turf contest has drawn a field of six colts and geldings.

While it doesn’t take keen handicapping acumen to determine that Nyquist and Exaggerator are the best of their generation, it’s still nice when the numbers verify those results.

The weather forecast for Saturday at Pimlico Race Course is calling for 1-2 inches of pouring rain which could render the main track sloppy for the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes (G1). The second jewel of the Triple Crown will be run at a mile and three-sixteenths.

On Friday at Churchill Downs, the track will host the $400,000 Alysheba Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and a sixteenth on the main track, the Grade 2 event has drawn a field of ten colts and geldings.

The $200,000 Grade 2 Eight Belles Stakes May 6 at Churchill Downs features an intriguing field of three year-old fillies set to travel seven furlongs on the main track.