The winners of the last two editions of the Da Hoss Stakes at Colonial Downs, plus the defending champion in the Van Clief, headline Saturday’s $150,000 Van Clief Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong turf dash for 3-year-olds and up.

A deep and accomplished 13-horse field features a bevy of stakes winners, including a Breeders’ Cup race victor and a horse on the cusp of $1 million in career earnings.

Headlining the lineup is Nobals (3-1, jockey Jareth Loveberry, trainer Larry Rivelli), the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint hero. The earner of nearly $1.8 million prepped for this with a solid third in the $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint. Rivelli used Colonial as a springboard to the Breeders’ Cup in ’23, when Nobals took the Da Hoss by a head less than two months before his big score.

Colonial turf form also runs deep with Isivunguvungu (8-1, John Velazquez, Graham Motion), a Group 1-caliber South African import who captured the 2024 Da Hoss and returns in search of his first win since that score. Nothing Better (8-1, Luis Saez, Jorge Duarte Jr.), second in the Da Hoss last year, is another pure speed threat, a five-time stakes winner who just missed in Monmouth Park’s Wolf Hill Stakes last out.

The field also includes the razor-sharp longshot Bear River (30-1, James Graham, J. Keith Desormeaux), who has taken two of his last three turf stakes including the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint at Ellis Park, which he won at odds of 17-1.

In that contest, he edged Coppola (9-2, Vincent Cheminaud, Dale Romans) and Nobals in a tight finish. Coppola, an ultra-quick Into Mischief horse closing in on $1 million in earnings, is always dangerous when allowed to roll early.

Defending Van Clief champion Witty (6-1, Jaime Rodriguez, Elizabeth Merryman) returns for another crack at the title and figures to be running late, while improving 4-year-old Horsepower (15-1, Javier Castellano, Joseph Orseno) ships in off a determined Karl Boyes Stakes win at Presque Isle Downs. Other contenders include Step Forward (6-1, Mychel Sanchez, Mark Casse), third in last year’s Grade 2 Highlander, and versatile veteran Had to Have Him (10-1, Tyler Gaffalione, John E. Salzman Jr.), most recently third in the Ben’s Cat.

This year’s Van Clief sets up as one of the most competitive and intriguing turf sprints on the calendar — and an ideal steppingstone toward the fall’s richest short-distance prizes.

VAN CLIEF STAKES ENTRIES