Princess Rooney Stakes

Winner of the GIII Vagrancy Stakes at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet in May, Haulin Ice (f, 4, Coal Front--She's Smoke, by Half Ours) secured her trip to the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with victory in Saturday's GIII Princess Rooney Stakes at Gulfstream Park, a 'Win and You're In' race for the championship in November. The gray speedball hustled straight to the front in Hallandale, setting uncontested fractions of :23.01 and :45.50 with her ears flicking back and forth. She didn't stop, shifting into another gear at...

The cars scooting along on the nearby Pennsylvania Turnpike may have little from a speed standpoint on Saturday's GI Pennsylvania Derby in Northeast Philly, as the pace looks to be very much on and that could help those with stalking or closing ability in the final age-restricted Grade I of the season around two turns. But make no mistake: speed has been king--by and large--in the $1-million contest over the past dozen years or so. The Bob Baffert-trained Bayern (Offlee Wild)--next-out winner of a much-discussed GI Breeders' Cup Classic--future champion...

With better than three months left on the racing calendar for 2024, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) has already locked up the 3-year-old filly championship, having dominated her peers in the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, GI Acorn Stakes and GI Coaching Club American Oaks. She lost little in defeat when running fellow 'Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) to a head in the GI Travers Stakes, but she returns to her own sex for Saturday's $1-million GI Cotillion Stakes, the first half of a Grade I double in...

Gulfstream Park's upcoming spring and summer stakes schedule features races worth $3.775 million and later runnings of its signature races. The $300,000 GII Princess Rooney S. and $200,000 GIII Smile Sprint S. have been moved from their traditional June dates and will be run Sept. 5 this year and the Princess Rooney has been shortened from seven furlongs to six. "Both the Princess Rooney and Smile were moved from the middle of the summer to September in hopes of more participation moving closer to the fall," said Mike Lakow, Gulfstream's...