Saudi Crown, Banishing Square Off in Hanshin Stakes

Fresh off a nose victory over 2024 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan  in the May 3 Lake Ouachita Stakes at Oaklawn Park, FMQ Stables' grade 1 winner Saudi Crown  pursues a second consecutive stakes victory in the $300,000 Hanshin Stakes June 29 at Churchill Downs.

Saudi Crown, a Brad Cox-trained 5-year-old son of 2017 Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming, battles seven other horses in the one-mile Hanshin, one of five stakes on the card. Sunday is closing day of Churchill Downs' spring meet.

Although the Hanshin is ungraded, it drew a field of graded caliber. Besides Saudi Crown, an earner of $3.4 million who took the 2023 Pennsylvania Derby (G1), the Hanshin lured fellow millionaire Banishing , who beat Saudi Crown by a length in the Oaklawn Mile Stakes (G3) in late March; Judge Miller , a Southern California invader who has hit the board in all six starts; graded stakes winners Best Actor , Tumbarumba , and Extra Anejo ; plus Cagliostro , who defeated Tumbarumba and Extra Anejo in capturing the 2024 Hanshin Stakes.

Wathnan Racing owns both Tumbarumba and Cagliostro. The two milers are trained by Brian Lynch and Cherie DeVaux, respectively. The latter returns from a layoff in the Hanshin after racing twice this winter in Dubai, where he ran third and fourth in a pair of group 3s.

Carded after the Bashford Manor Stakes and Debutante Stakes, each for juveniles, the Hanshin is the eighth race Sunday with an expected post time of 4:23 p.m. ET.

Pin Up Betty, Charlene's Dream Meet Again in Anchorage

Following the Hanshin is the $175,000 Anchorage Overnight Stakes, a nine-horse race for older fillies and mares which features a rematch on grass between Pin Up Betty  and Charlene's Dream , the 1-2 finishers from the June 1 Mint Julep Stakes (G3T) at Churchill Downs.

The Anchorage Overnight Stakes is a sixteenth of a mile longer than the 1 1/16-mile Mint Julep—a 1 1/8-mile distance over which Three Diamonds Farm's Pin Up Betty twice won over the Churchill Downs grass course last year. Those victories came over a good course in a maiden race and over firm ground in the Regret Stakes (G3T).

Like Pin Up Betty, Domeyko Taylor's Charlene's Dream is also a graded stakes winner and proven over damp ground, having won the Gallorette Stakes (G3T) over good turf at Pimlico Race Course May 17.

Captain Cook, Flood Zone cut back in distance for seven-furlong maxfield

The $250,000 Maxfield Stakes, a seven-furlong dash for 3-year-olds, wraps up the stakes action as the 10th race on the 11-race card, headlined by a pair of horses who won stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack earlier this year when competing on the Road to the Kentucky Derby series.

St. Elias Stable's Captain Cook , trained by Rick Dutrow, took the Feb. 1 Withers Stakes before running fourth in the April 5 Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) and third in the May 10 Peter Pan Stakes (G3), also at Aqueduct. 

Wathnan Racing's Flood Zone , trained by Cox, took the one-mile Gotham Stakes (G3) March 1 before traveling to Dubai and disappointing with a seventh-place finish in the 1 3/16-mile UAE Derby April 5 at Meydan Racecourse.

Other noteworthy Maxfield entrants include Retribution , Smoken Wicked , Speed King , and Verifire , victorious in each of his two starts.