By Kristin Slape

We have a 9 horse field taking to the Arlington Park turf Saturday with three 4YO’s taking on the veterans that include 3 European invaders all contesting the classic distance of 1 Mile and 1/4. The European trainers love the Arlington Turf course so they must be respected today.

TOP SELECTIONS

6 GIO PONTI

8 CIMA DE TRIOMPHE

1 EINSTEIN

2 PRESIOUS PASSION

6 GIO PONTI (5/2) has been phenomenal on the turf with a record of (11 7-2-0) which includes 3 Grade 1 wins posted in his last 3 starts (Frank Kilroe H., Manhattan H., & most recently the Man O’ War).  The 4YO stretch-running son of Tale of the Cat has 2 wins for 3 starts at today’s distance and one of those was over a yielding turf (rain has been forecasted in the Chicago area for Friday and Saturday).  Trainer Christophe Clement tabs Ramon Dominguez for the ride (owns a 25% win rate on the sod).  Hard to go against him at this point.  8 CIMA DE TRIOMPHE (9/2) represents 1/3 of the European contingency and is a 4YO Irish bred son of Galileo(IRE) trained by Luca Cumani (who, as an added note, saddled Tolomeo who beat John Henry in the 3rd running of the Million).  Most recently was beaten nearly 11L by the European turf champ Sea the Stars (who performed the rare fete of winning three Group 1 races at 1 MILE, 1 MILE ½ & 1 Mile ¼,  in that order), and captured the English Group 3 Brigadier Gerard S. prior to that. Has two wins for 4 starts at today’s distance. Jockey Christophe Lemaire, who has ridden CIMA the last 3 starts, accompanies him on the trip to Chicago. Could be a threat here.  1 EINSTEIN (4/1) is a 7YO son of Spend a Buck (who won the 1985 KY Derby) trained by Helen Pitts-Blasi, who stumbled at the start in this race last year and finished a disappointing 5th, beaten just 3L, and has since won 3 of his last 5 starts including the G2 Clark H., G1 Santa Anita H. (on all-weather surface), and the G1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.  The veteran has a pace pressing style and regular rider Julian Leparoux in the irons (19% turf wins).  2 PRESIOUS PASSION  (6/1) the pace setting 6YO gelded son of Royal Anthem enters this off a dominating performance last month, winning the G1 United Nations S. (for 2nd year in a row) at Monmouth Park by a couple lengths after surging by 20L at the half mile call. Today he will have a bit of a post advantage to help boost his front running effort, however  does face tougher competition and would be an incredible achievement to get a 20L jump on these-- not impossible, but would seem unlikely.  Still, the Mary Hartman trained speedball can at least share a slice of this and will have regular jock Elvis Trujillo (16% turf wins) aboard.

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By Kristin Slape, check out my free handicapping shows at www.tracksidebroadcasting.com