Four Woodbine Stakes Headline Nov. 21 Racing Action

A handful of graded stakes are scattered across North America Saturday, Nov. 21, topped by a four-stakes program at Woodbine where the Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) and Bessarabian Stakes (G2) share top billing. Also on the card are the Ontario Derby (G3) and the Ontario Damsel for 3-year-olds.

Back in the states, the Red Smith Stakes (G3T) at Aqueduct Racetrack is the final graded turf stake of the season for males on the New York circuit.

The Chilukki Stakes (G3) for filly-and-mare milers at Churchill Downs and the Native Diver Stakes (G3) for routers at Del Mar are also on the schedule.

Three-time champion Canadian sprinter Pink Lloyd, who hasn't officially lost a race in over two years (he was declared a non-starter after breaking through the gate early in the 2019 Bold Venture Stakes, G3), will be favored to notch his third win in the Kennedy Road. Standing in his way is Silent Poet, who has won his last six starts at less than a mile.

The Native Diver attracted just five entrants and may go with less than that, as a decision on the status of morning-line favorite and defending titlist Midcourt will be made race day, and the filly Stellar Sound is nominated to the upcoming Falls City Stakes (G2) on Thanksgiving Day at Churchill.

Here are our best three ideas in chronological order.

Red Smith (Aqu, race 9, 3:45 ET): We rarely shirk from a contrarian point of view in this space, but honestly there's little to find fault with concerning Sadler's Joy (4) and Red Knight (10), the first two finishers in the 2019 edition of this three-turn affair.

Sadler's Joy has three of the field's four wins at the 11-furlong trip, and the likeable 7-year-old is on the same schedule as last year when he came off the Bowling Green Stakes (G2T), Sword Dancer Stakes (G1T), and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) to beat Red Knight by two lengths.

Red Knight somehow wound up 19 lengths behind through the early stages of last year's renewal but has shown recently that he can be placed closer to the early pace, as he was in the recent Sycamore Stakes (G3T) when he threaded through traffic on the final turn and won going away.

Two upset possibilities are North Dakota (5) and Aquaphobia (9), who were fourth and seventh in the Sycamore. That was the first outing since July for North Dakota, who was pinned inside through the stretch and struck the rail near the eighth-pole. Aquaphobia had the wrong setup pressing the pace and caught a boggy course in the Sword Dancer before that; he's a big threat off his winning effort in the United Nations Stakes (G1T) three back.

A - 4, 10

B - 5, 9

Chilukki (CD, race 9, 5:06 ET): With the exception of Sanenus (9), who won a couple black-type races in her native Chile last year, the only graded winner in the lineup is Finite (2), who won two stakes at Churchill last fall including the Golden Rod Stakes (G2) in the slop.

Good luck figuring Finite out, though. She returned from a layoff with the worst race of her career in the Music City Stakes (finishing last of 11 on a Kentucky Downs course she won on last year), followed by the fastest race of her life to miss by a neck in the Lexus Raven Run Stakes (G2) five weeks ago. I'm playing devil's advocate based on the fact that she "bounced" at 3-10 in the Twinspires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) and faded to fourth, five weeks after posting her previous top figure with a blowout win in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes Presented by Fasig-Tipton (G2). Perhaps another regression is in the cards.

Grand Cru Classe (3) finished a half-length behind Finite while making her graded-stakes debut in the Raven Run. That effort followed three straight wins to begin her career—at three tracks at three different distances—and I have more confidence in her being able to hold form than I do with the favorite.

Finite and Grand Cru Classe are 3-year-olds meeting older stakes runners for the first time, so let's put Whoa Nellie (4) and Unique Factor (8) in the mix as well. Whoa Nellie has been sidelined since a sharp second in the Bayakoa Stakes (G3) nine months ago, but she is a two-time winner on this track beginning with her debut. Unique Factor is a steady-going sort who had too much to do when she rallied from last to get second in the McConnell Springs Stakes at Keeneland first time back from a freshening; she wheels back quickly at an appetizing 10-1.

A - 3, 8

B - 2, 4

Bessarabian (WO, race 10, 5:58 ET): The top three finishers from the Aug. 16 Seaway Stakes (G3), Souper Escape (1), Painting (3) and Amalfi Coast (5), reconvene, and the latter looks like an overlay if allowed to get away at anything like her 7-2 morning line.

Amalfi Coast came from off the pace to win the 2019 Bessarabian and the Seaway marked her first race over the synthetic surface since then. She returned to top form and beat Souper Escape and Painting decisively in the Sweet Briar Too Stakes last out, and two fast workouts since then indicate she remains sharp.

If someone is going to beat Amalfi Coast, perhaps it will be one of the 3-year-olds, Boardroom (2), Artie's Princess (4) or Our Secret Agent (7).

In her only loss from four starts, Boardroom could not be properly handled when a rein broke at the start of the Ruling Angel Stakes, and three weeks later she rebounded to win the Duchess Stakes despite a four-wide trip.

Artie's Princess is 4-1-0 from five starts on Woodbine's all-weather track, and prepped for this with a five-furlong workout in a bullet :58.60 seconds Nov. 15, a day when the next-fastest time was 1:00.20. She may get first run on probable pacesetter Jakarta.

Our Secret Agent has won or placed in all four starts since switched to synthetic for Mark Casse, who reached the 3,000-win plateau at Gulfstream Park West on Thursday. This up-and-coming filly was a solid second to Boardroom in the Duchess and rates a chance to keep developing at 20-1.

A - 4, 5

B - 2, 7