Weekend Stakes Rundown: Chrome's CA Sendoff

Each week BloodHorse.com looks forward to the weekend's biggest races. Consider this your weekly guide to the best stakes races in North America. This week we have California Chrome in his Southern California swan song, a trio of grade III races at Gulfstream Park, and more. Races are listed in chronological order (all times Eastern) and full previews can be found through the hyperlink for each race.

Saturday, Dec. 17

1:30 p.m.—$100,000 Sugar Swirl Stakes (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park

Trainer Kelly Breen has mixed emotions about running multiple graded stakes winner Stonetastic in the Sugar Swirl. On one hand, the 5-year-old is the horse to beat in the sprint race for fillies and mares. On the other, the Sugar Swirl could be the mare's last race before starting her next career.

2 p.m.—$100,000 Rampart Stakes (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park

Heading the field is Cheyenne Stables' graded stakes winner Genre, who comes into the one-mile test off a third-place finish in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (gr. I)  Oct. 9. The 4-year-old daughter of Bernardini   won the Molly Pitcher Stakes (gr. III) over a sealed, sloppy Monmouth Park surface July 31, when she defeated stablemate and fellow Rampart entrant, Eskenformoney.

3:01 p.m.—$100,000 Harlan's Holiday Stakes (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park

Trainer Todd Pletcher is throwing both quality and quantity at the Harlan's Holiday. The barn of the seven-time Eclipse Award winner is attempting to corner the market in the 1 1/16-mile race at Gulfstream Park, sending out three of the field's seven entrants in graded stakes winners Stanford, Madefromlucky, and Keen Ice, who famously defeated Triple Crown winner American Pharoah   in the 2015 Travers Stakes (gr. I).

7:28 p.m.—$180,000 Winter Challenge at Los Alamitos Race Course

California Chrome   will be the overwhelming favorite in what will be his only race at the track where he has done the majority of his training. From the remaining entries, there is only one other graded stakes winner—Point Piper. The 6-year-old son of Giant's Causeway   won the Aug. 14 Longacres Mile Handicap (gr. III) at Emerald Downs and followed that effort up with a fourth-place run in the Kelso Handicap (gr. I), a sixth-place finish in the Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I), and a runner-up in the Native Diver Stakes (gr. III).

Sunday Dec. 18

2:45 p.m.—$100,000 Gravesend Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack

Stallwalkin' Dude, who has eight more wins than the next-closest entry in the field, has a graded stakes victory to his credit this year, capturing the Oct. 29 Bold Ruler (gr. III) at Belmont Park. The 6-year-old City Place gelding has been successful at the Gravesend distance, finishing second by one length to Joking in the Oct. 1 Vosburgh Stakes (gr. I) at Belmont.

6:28 p.m.—$100,000 King Glorious Stakes at Los Alamitos Race Course

California Diamond will stretch out to a mile for the first time as he aims for his fifth stakes win of 2016. California Diamond won his only previous start at Los Alamitos, in the Barretts Juvenile Sept. 18. The Barretts Juvenile was the second of the Harbor the Gold colt's stakes successes, following the Santa Anita Juvenile, and preceding the Speakeasy and Golden State Juvenile.