Makari seeks another big win in New York Turf Writers Cup

The latter will not return for the about 2 3/8-mile Turf Writers Cup, but

otherwise the race looks very much like the Smithwick. Demonstrative, who ran

his best race in more than a year when beaten a nose by Makari, captured this

race by a length in 2012 over Charminster, who enters this renewal off a neck

loss against optional claiming company on July 30 in his first outing in 14

months.

Grade 3 winner Pleasant Woodman, third by 7 1/4 lengths after setting the

pace in the Smithwick, is joined by Italian Wedding and All Together, sixth and

fourth in the Smithwick, respectively. That pair finished one-two in the Turf

Writers Cup last season, with Italian Wedding the victor by a length.

Novice stakes winners Barnstorming and Staying On, both also-rans in the

Smithwick, will line up Thursday as will For Non Stop, a nine-year-old who won

by more than 27 lengths in his U.S. debut at Stone Mountain, Georgia, in April,

and followed with a third-place finish behind Divine Fortune in the Iroquois, a

Grade 1 event at Percy Warner Park in Nashville.

The flat feature on Monday's program is the $100,000

Smart N

Fancy

a 5 1/2-furlong turf dash for fillies and mares. Free as a Bird will be favored

to win her fourth $100,000 stakes in a row following scores in the License Fee

and Intercontinental at Belmont Park and the Caress at Saratoga.

Other leading contenders include Madame Giry, the 2013 Smart N Fancy winner;

the three-year-old Stars Above Me, who took the Coronation Cup in her U.S. debut

July 30; turf sprint stakes winners To My Valentine and Believe in Charlie; and

Speedinthruthecity, a multiple stakes winner on dirt this year who has won or

placed in two prior turf attempts.

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