Holiday Star Shoots for Red Smith Handicap

Holiday Star will try for a second straight grade III win going a distance on the turf in the $250,000 Red Smith Handicap Nov. 14 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Augustin Stable’s Holiday Star enters Saturday’s 1 3/8-mile turf race off a half-length score in the 1 1/q-mile Sycamore Stakes (gr. IIIT) Oct. 15 at Keeneland. That win added to a stretch in which the 5-year-old Harlan’s Holiday gelding won the Cape Henlopen Stakes July 26 at Delaware Park before finishing second in the John’s Call Stakes Aug. 26 at Saratoga Race Course.

NOVAK: Holiday Star Posts Sycamore Repeat

Edgar Prado, who was aboard for all three of those most-recent starts, is scheduled to ride again Saturday for trainer Graham Motion. Holiday Star has a 5-3-2 record from 17 career turf starts.

Saturday’s field also includes the Sycamore runner-up, Ken and Sarah Ramsey homebred Charming Kitten, who won last year’s Belmont Gold Cup Invitational Stakes.

Shug McGaughey boasts wins in three of the past four editions of the Red Smith and the Hall of Fame trainer will send out Phipps Stable homebred Mr Speaker Saturday. Mr Speaker won the Commonwealth Cup Stakes (gr. IIIT) Sept. 19 on the Laurel Park turf before finishing a close third in the Knickerbocker Stakes (gr. IIIT) Oct. 10 on the Belmont Park inner turf.

BALAN: Mr Speaker Rallies for Commonwealth Cup Score

Mr Speaker, a 4-year-old Pulpit colt, is the 122-pound highweight among the 10 entries, which includes main-track-only Catron.