2 big stakes races today at Arlington Park

Two-year-olds of both sexes take the spotlight today at Arlington Park with the 77th editions of the Grade III $100,000 Arlington-Washington Futurity and the Grade III $100,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie on tap.

And if both his entrants perform well, trainer Jimmy DiVito might just share a piece of that spotlight.

DiVito, who is far and away the leading conditioner of 2-year-olds at the meet with an impressive 8-for-13 record, will saddle morning-line favorite Twelve Hundred in the Futurity and Ann of the Dance in the Lassie, where she has been pegged as the third choice in the early line. Tom Amoss, Manny Perez and John Haran are the other three conditioners along with DiVito who have horses entered in both the Futurity and the Lassie.

Both Ann of the Dance and Twelve Hundred have made two starts in their respective careers, and both are undefeated heading into today’s main events.

“We’re ready to go with both of them,” DiVito said. “Ann of the Dance worked five-eighths last Saturday in 1:03.60 and Twelve Hundred breezed three-quarters Sunday in 1:13. All we have to do now is hope they both get good trips.”

An overflow field of 14 2-year-old colt and geldings are entered for the Futurity, topped by Divito’s Twelve Hundred and the Joel Berndt-trained Hogy.

Twelve hundred is an Illinois-foaled son of Cape Town and recent winner of the $60,000 Prairie Meadows Juvenile Mile.

Hogy, a son of Offlee Wild, carries a three-for-three mark into the Futurity with his most recent score coming in the $50,000 Brian Barenscheer Stakes at Canterbury Park on Aug. 14. His previous victories came over the Arlington Polytrack.

“I’ve been looking forward to running in the Arlington-Washington Futurity with this horse all summer,” Berndt said. “I’ve trained some pretty nice horses in my time, but this is for sure the best 2-year-old I’ve ever had.”

Struck It Lucky and Dream Pegasus should vie for favoritism in the Lassie, which drew a field of 9 fillies.

Struck It Lucky, a Tom Proctor-trained daughter of Smart Strike, won her debut here Aug. 21 by 2 ¼ lengths despite being bottled up in traffic at the top of the stretch when racing 5 ½ furlongs over Polytrack.

The Ken McPeek-trained Dream Pegasus broke her maiden by 7 lengths at Ellis Park on July 8, in a one-mile race originally carded for the turf.