Friday September 25 delivers racing worth following on three continents before the weekend even starts. Nitrogen headlines the Grade 2 Beldame at Belmont Park as she preps for the Breeders Cup Distaff, a fifteen strong field of two year old fillies goes to post in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes on day two of Newmarket’s Cambridgeshire meeting, and Santa Anita opens its nineteen day Autumn Meet out west. Add in a stacked Grand Circuit harness card at Harrah’s Hoosier Park and there is more than enough here to build a full day of betting around.
Table of Contents
Nitrogen Returns In The Beldame At Belmont Park Cambridgeshire Friday Brings A Loaded Rockfel Stakes To Newmarket Santa Anita Opens Its Autumn Meet Grand Circuit Harness Racing Rolls Into Hoosier Park Best Bets For Friday September 25 Ready To Bet Friday’s CardNitrogen Returns In The Beldame At Belmont Park
Nitrogen, post 4, trained by Mark Casse and ridden again by Jose Ortiz, goes into the 88th running of the Beldame off a runner up finish to Horse of the Year Sovereignty in the Grade 1 Whitney on August 8, a race she ran against males and set much of the pace in. Owner Jon Green explained the decision to skip the Grade 1 Spinster and the Jockey Club Gold Cup for this spot instead: “Our end game with Nitrogen is for her to win the Breeders Cup Distaff. Keeping that end game in mind, we have decided to run her in the Beldame.” Casse added that “she’s adapted to Belmont well, so we’re ready to go.”
The Eclipse Award winner carries a record of seventeen starts, eight wins, six seconds and three thirds, and close to three million dollars in earnings, into the one and one eighth mile test on dirt. The connections have their eyes on the thirty thousand dollar Breeders Cup credit that comes with a win here as much as the two hundred fifty thousand dollar purse itself.
She will not have it to herself. Chad Brown saddles two of the five confirmed runners, Lost Horizon (post 2, Flavien Prat), runner up in the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher on July 18, and Donor Advised (post 1, Manny Franco), fresh off an optional claiming win on August 30 for Klaravich Stables. Boutwell Time (post 3, Antonio Fresu) arrives on a four race winning streak for trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero, while Lika Rolling Stone (post 5, Chris Elliott) rounds out the field with six wins from forty one career starts and more than three hundred forty thousand dollars banked for trainer Antonio Arriaga. Nitrogen is the 1/9 morning line favorite, with Lost Horizon next at 5/1 ahead of Donor Advised (8/1), Boutwell Time (12/1) and Lika Rolling Stone (30/1), so the value lies in the improving form lines stacked up around her.
Post time for the Beldame is 1:10pm ET.
| Post | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Key Stat | Morning Line |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Donor Advised | Chad Brown | Manny Franco | Won optional claiming race August 30 | 8/1 |
| 2 | Lost Horizon | Chad Brown | Flavien Prat | Runner up, Grade 2 Molly Pitcher, July 18 | 5/1 |
| 3 | Boutwell Time | Juan Carlos Guerrero | Antonio Fresu | Four race winning streak | 12/1 |
| 4 | Nitrogen | Mark Casse | Jose Ortiz | 17 8 6 3 record, runner up in Grade 1 Whitney to Sovereignty | 1/9 |
| 5 | Lika Rolling Stone | Antonio Arriaga | Chris Elliott | Six wins from 41 career starts | 30/1 |
Cambridgeshire Friday Brings A Loaded Rockfel Stakes To Newmarket
To England, where day two of Newmarket‘s three day Cambridgeshire meeting is built around the Group 2 Betway Rockfel Stakes, a seven furlong test for two year old fillies worth seventy thousand eight hundred eighty eight pounds. Nine fillies go to post at 2:25pm UK, 9:25am ET, and one of them has the market to herself. John and Thady Gosden’s Spirited Gesture, under Colin Keane, heads the betting at 13/8, with Joseph Patrick O’Brien’s Alwaysanangel rerouted to Saturday’s Group 1 Cheveley Park instead.
James Doyle takes the ride on K R Burke’s Light Of Dawn, a 5/1 chance and the top rated runner in the field on Racing Post Rating at 112. EEve Johnson Houghton’s Sugar Yes Please (Charles Bishop, 5/1) and Roger Varian’s Miss Miniver (William Buick, 13/2) both sit just behind that pair in the market, while Richard Spencer sends up Speed Of Sound at 10/1 under Saffie Osborne after the filly stepped up from Doncaster nursery company. Ed Walker’s German bred Siena Storm (Kieran Shoemark) is a non runner. Aidan O’Brien has won this race four times in recent seasons, most recently with Bubbling in 2024, so his colours are always worth watching even without a runner in this year’s field.
| No | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | RPR | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Spirited Gesture | John and Thady Gosden | Colin Keane | 96 | 13/8 |
| 1 | Light Of Dawn | K R Burke | James Doyle | 112 | 7/2 |
| 10 | Sugar Yes Please | Eve Johnson Houghton | Charles Bishop | 107 | 5/1 |
| 2 | Miss Miniver (IRE) | Roger Varian | William Buick | 91 | 13/2 |
| 8 | Speed Of Sound (IRE) | Richard Spencer | Saffie Osborne | 100 | 10/1 |
| 3 | Pensando A Te | Marco Botti | Silvestre De Sousa | 97 | 12/1 |
| 6 | Sea Venture (IRE) | George Scott | Billy Loughnane | 99 | 14/1 |
| 5 | Ruby Moon (IRE) | Richard and Peter Fahey | Oisin Orr | 102 | 25/1 |
| 4 | Redline | Jennie Candlish | Oisin Murphy | 90 | 33/1 |
| 7 | Siena Storm (GER) | Ed Walker | Kieran Shoemark | 102 | Non runner |
Odds are Racing Post latest betting as of the morning of Friday September 25, subject to change before the off. Ratings, trainers and jockeys verified via Racing Post.
Santa Anita Opens Its Autumn Meet
Santa Anita opens its nineteen day Autumn Meet on Friday, the first stand at the Arcadia oval since the spring. The meet carries increased purses across the board and features twenty six stakes races between now and its close, seven of them run as Breeders Cup Win and You’re In qualifiers feeding straight into the Breeders Cup at Keeneland in November. That group includes the Grade 1 Goodwood and the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile the following day, so Friday’s opener effectively serves as the prologue to one of the busier stakes stretches on the Santa Anita calendar this year.
Grand Circuit Harness Racing Rolls Into Hoosier Park
Standardbred fans have their own reason to tune in Friday as Harrah’s Hoosier Park hosts a Grand Circuit card built around six figure stakes. The Kentuckiana Stallion Series sends its two year old filly pacers and trotters to post for two hundred thousand dollar divisions apiece, the Hoosier Park Pacing Derby carries a one hundred seventy five thousand dollar purse, the Jenna’s Beach Boy is worth one hundred twenty five thousand dollars and the Phil Langley Memorial rounds out the headline events at one hundred thousand dollars. The Caesars Trotting Classic, the Elevation and the Madison County fill out a Grand Circuit program that puts close to a million dollars in purse money on the track in a single afternoon. Ken Hanover (post 4, Tim Tetrick) is the 5/2 morning line favorite for the Pacing Derby, race 13 at 5:30pm ET, with Grade 1 Dan Patch winner Dandy Ideal (post 1, Jason Bartlett) next at 4/1.
| Race | Purse |
|---|---|
| Kentuckiana Stallion 2YO Filly Pace | $200,000 |
| Kentuckiana Stallion 2YO Filly Trot | $200,000 |
| Hoosier Park Pacing Derby | $175,000 |
| Jenna’s Beach Boy | $125,000 |
| Phil Langley Memorial | $100,000 |
| Caesars Trotting Classic, Elevation and Madison County | Also on card, purses TBC |
Best Bets For Friday September 25
With Nitrogen a 1/9 morning line favorite in the Beldame,, the value case leans toward the improving form horses around Nitrogen rather than simply fading the star. Boutwell Time’s four race win streak and Lost Horizon’s placing behind top level fillies in the Molly Pitcher both make cases for minor award spots in exotics underneath the favorite. In the Rockfel, Spirited Gesture’s Gosden stable form and the Colin Keane booking give the market leader every right to start favorite, but Light Of Dawn’s clear Racing Post Rating edge at 7/2 makes for tempting each way value against the favorite in a nine runner field.
Ready To Bet Friday’s Card
Whatever combination of tracks you follow on Friday, from Nitrogen’s Beldame prep to the Rockfel field at Newmarket, the Autumn Meet launch at Santa Anita and the Grand Circuit night at Hoosier Park, the volume of racing gives bettors plenty of angles to work across dirt, turf and the pacing oval alike.
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Image by Paul (vegaseddie), licensed under CC BY 2.0.
