The stakes portion of the season gets underway Saturday with the Grade 3 Hanshin Cup. This race was originally christened in 1941 for Equipoise, a Hall of Fame racehorse whose stakes wins included a pair of top-notch local triumphs: the 1933 Arlington Handicap and the 1933 Hawthorne Gold Cup. In its Equipoise Mile days, its winners included Hall of Fame inductee and onetime Arlington stakes namesake Swoon’s Son (1957, 1958), champion sprinter Smile (1986) and multiple stakes winner Better Bee (1959).  Better Bee went on to sire Abe’s Hope, the Illinois-bred winner of the 1966 Blue Grass Stakes, as well as his Maryland-bred full brother Bee Bee Bee, winner of the 1972 Preakness.  Its more recent winners have included durable fan favourites like Bonapaw (2002), Hogy (2013), and Nikki’s Sandcastle (2014).

Head over to Picks and Ponderings, read my preview of the Hanshin Cup, and let me know your thoughts in the comments!