text: HORSE RACING: KEY CONNECTIONS AWAIT TURF CUP - Daily Press
  On the strength of four wins in his last six starts, British-bred colt Battle of Hastings will lead a 10-horse field in Saturday's Colonial Turf Cup, a $500,000 Grade II stakes race on Colonial Downs' turf course.
  Battle of Hastings is an early 2-to-1 favorite to win the race, a 1 3/16 -mile event on Colonial Downs' Secretariat turf course that serves as the first leg of the $5-million Grand Slam of Grass. Battle of Hastings will receive challenges from several horses with elite connections.
  Trainer Todd Pletcher and jockeys Kent Desormeaux, Edgar Prado and Julien Leparoux will have interests in Saturday's race, which is slated for a post time of about 6:20 p.m.
  Pletcher, who is second on the trainers' earnings list this year with more than $5.3 million in 457 starts, has two entries - Take the Points and Al Khali.
  Take the Points, just behind Battle of Hastings at 3-to-1, is the only horse in the field with experience in a Triple Crown race. Take the Points, which will be ridden by Garrett Gomez, has two wins and finished 13th in the Preakness Stakes in May.
  Al Khali, which will break from the rail in the first position, will make his first trip on turf with Desormeaux on top.
  Desormeaux just got his first Belmont Stakes win June 6 atop Summer Bird. Desormeaux has won the Kentucky Derby three times and the Preakness Stakes twice.
  Jeff Mullins trains Battle of Hastings. He's the only horse in the field with a graded stakes win - a victory in March in the Grade III Baldwin Stakes at Santa Anita. Tyler Baze will ride.
  Prado, who won jockey championships at Colonial Downs in 1997 and '98, will be on Rescue Squad. It will be Rescue Squad's first graded stakes.
  Leparoux is atop the jockeys' earnings list this year with more than $8.1 million in 650 starts. He'll ride Lime Rickey, an eighth-place finisher in the Grade I Wood Memorial, from the outside 10th position.
  After Saturday's race, the Grand Slam of Grass will continue with three more legs. On July 18, the Virginia Derby will take place at Colonial Downs. On Aug. 8, the Secretariat Stakes will go off at Arlington Park in Illinois.
  On Nov. 7, the Breeders' Cup Turf will be run at Santa Anita Park in southern California. If a horse can win all four races, a prize of $5 million will be awarded.
  POST TIME: 6:20 p.m. Saturday.
  FIELD: 1. Al Khali (jockey Kent Desormeaux) 20-1 odds against; 2. Winning Vow (Kyle Kaenel) 30-1; 3. Rescue Squad (Edgar Prado) 6-1; 4. Straight Story (Charles Lopez) 10-1; 5. Take the Points (Garrett Gomez) 3-1; 6. Mark S the Cooler (Corey Nakatani) 10-1; 7. Final Count (Corey Lanerie) 12-1; 8. Battle of Hastings (Tyler Baze) 2-1; 9. Dover Street Art (Agapito Delgadillo) 30-1; 10. Lime Rickey (Julien Leparoux) 7-2.