Sheilahs Warcloud, beaten a neck as the favorite in her stakes debut last month, returns for owner, trainer and co-breeder Justin Nixon against fellow stakes-placed Kissedbyanangel and Determined Sail in the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Saturday, Dec. 2 at Laurel Park.
Bred with Dr. Megan Kerford, Nixon had no hesitation when it came to naming the chestnut daughter of multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire Madefromlucky, who stands at Northview Stallion Station.
“She's always had a real forward attitude, and that's why I named her after my mom. No nonsense, no messing around, got some sass to her and she's just done everything right for us,” Nixon said. “There's not really much to complain about. She's trained on well and raced dynamite, always very professional. She's just been a treat.”
Sheilahs Warcloud graduated at first asking Aug. 10 at Colonial Downs, a six-furlong maiden special weight sprint she won by 2 ¼ lengths. Next she tried open company in a Sept. 16 optional claiming allowance at historic Pimlico Race Course, running second to Irish Maxima, who came back to be fifth in Aqueduct's Frizette (G1).
A half-sister to two-time winner Gastown Babe, Sheliahs Warcloud was the popular choice in the Maryland Million Lassie Oct. 14 at Laurel. She sat off a duel up front, came with a four-wide rally to draw even in deep stretch with leader Miss Harriett – a first-time starter sent off at 62-1 – but ultimately fell short.
“I thought she ran great,” Nixon said. “Miss Harriett ran lights out and I thought we had her. She came out to us a little bit and maybe it just intimidated her just a touch and we couldn't get by that filly. We ran as good as we can run and not win. It was a little disappointing that we didn't win but we were pretty thrilled that she was second in a good race. She's stakes placed and in only three starts she's been very productive. We're very excited about her. She's Maryland-bred and Maryland-sired, and we're hoping if she stays healthy we can have a lot of fun next year as well.”
Xavier Perez, aboard for all three starts, gets the return call from outermost Post 8.
“She hasn't been a total surprise but she's exceeded my expectations of her. She's trained professionally in the mornings. In her works she was always rateable and respectful of the rider. To see her do it in the afternoon as well, it makes you feel good that all the practice pays off,” Nixon said.
“They don't often run the way they work. Game day is different than practice day, but she's been a pro on the track and at the races,” he added. “And I think she'll benefit from a little added ground. Seven-eighths should help her a little bit and I think down the road going long she'll be fine doing two turns, as well.”
Joanne Shankle-owned and trained Kissedbyanangel, claimed for $12,500 out of her debut win Sept. 10 at Pimlico, finished a troubled third in the Lassie and has come back to run twice since. Second in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance Oct. 28 at Laurel, she was a 2 ¼-length winner of a similar spot Nov. 17 going one mile.
D Hatman Thoroughbreds' Determined Sail is entered to make her main track debut for trainer Phil Schoenthal. The bay daughter of champion Bernardini broke her maiden and was third behind well-regarded Tok Tok in the Kitten's Joy on the Colonial Downs turf this summer, and has been off the board in two subsequent grass starts at Laurel, including the Sept. 30 Selima.
Morgan's Ford Farm's Binnie makes the jump from debut winner to stakes for trainer Brittany Russell. After being scratched from a planned Oct. 13 debut after acting up at the starting gate, the full sister to Crabcakes – named for the late horsewoman that bred and raced the multiple stakes winner, Elizabeth 'Binnie' Houghton – rallied for a two-length waiver maiden claiming victory Nov. 2 at Laurel.
Completing the field are Lucky Cougar, a Thistledown maiden special weight winner Sept. 5 that ran fourth in the Lassie and third in a Nov. 22 allowance at Mahoning Valley in her last two starts; Still Game, a debut winner for trainer Richard Sillaman in August at Delaware Park; and maidens Big Earn and Little Crybaby.
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Nearly 16 months after his arrest at Louisiana's Evangeline Downs for alleged “unnatural stimulation of horses,” jockey Gerard Melancon has a Dec. 18 pre-trial hearing in 27th Judicial District Court in St. Landry Parish before Judge A. Gerard Caswell.
Court documents indicate docket sounding and pleas will be heard Feb. 6-7, 2024, with jury selection scheduled March 18.
Melancon was arrested by state police Aug. 26, 2022, and originally charged with “unnatural stimulation of horses.” An Amended Bill of Information filed on Sept. 7, 2023, alleges Melancon “violated R.S. 4:175 in that he/she did possess within the confines of the racetrack or racetrack stables, sheds, or buildings on racetrack ground where horses are kept which are eligible to race over a racetrack of any racing association or license, any electrical battery or other apparatus, which might have the effect of unnaturally depressing, stimulating, or exciting any horse during any race, contrary to the laws of the State of Louisiana, and against the peace and dignity of the same.”
The Louisiana State Racing Commission has taken no action against Melancon, who rode at Evangeline the day after his arrest and has not missed any time since.
Charles A. Gardiner III, executive director of the commission, told the Paulick Report in an email, “The Commission's policy is to not proceed during the pendency of criminal charges. In the matter of Mr. Melancon, there has been no final adjudication of those criminal charges.”
Prosecutors have not released information concerning any evidence they may have against Melancon.
Melancon deferred comment to his attorney. Richard “Dicky” Haik, a retired federal judge appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 to serve in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
“All I can tell you about this case is he's not guilty,” Haik said of Melancon. “That's a fact. I'm hoping to get it dismissed before too much longer. That's all I can really tell you.”
A motion to quash filed by Melancon's attorney was denied by by the judge in September 2023.
“He was in the parking lot (when arrested),” Haik said of Melancon. “He's charged with possession of a shocking mechanism, but he never touched it, never saw it, never laid his eyes on it.
Haik said the device “wasn't found in the jockeys room. They found one in a hallway somewhere. No fingerprints of (Melancon) because he never touched it, no nothing. They have a terrible case, and I don't know why they did it.
“I feel very strongly that this case is going to be dismissed,” said Haik. “If not, we're going to go ahead and try it and he'll be found not guilty. There's no doubt in my mind about that.
“The evidence in the case log is 100 percent on his side,” Haik added. “Even if he gets convicted, the Third Circuit (Louisiana Court of Appeal) is going to throw it out. The guy didn't touch it, never had it, never handled it.”
The case has been delayed, Haik said, because the prosecutors in St. Landry Parish have had three murder cases to try.
Melancon, 56, has 5,109 victories in a riding career dating back to 1984 and includes graded stakes wins in New York, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Illinois. He overcame substance abuse problems early in his career and was granted immunity from prosecution in a March 1986 race-fixing case at Fair Grounds in Louisiana after allegedly accepting $500 to keep his horse from finishing in the top three. A second jockey, Jeff Faul, also was given immunity from prosecution after testifying that he, too, accepted a bribe to finish out of the top three in the same race. Faul would later be suspended six years in 2003 when caught with an electrical device at Great Lakes Downs in Michigan. He died in 2012.
Jockey Phil Rubbicco, said to be the mastermind of the race-fixing scheme, was charged with sports bribery and conspiracy. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to two years in prison after a February 1987 trial. Rubbicco continued to ride in Louisiana until his trial date, after which his license was suspended. Rubbicco never rode in races again.
In 2022, Melancon signed on as one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit, along with the Louisiana State Racing Commission and others, seeking to block the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority from enforcing its regulations in Louisiana and West Virginia. A federal judge granted the injunction, effectively keeping HISA out of those two states until other legal questions are resolved.
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Jagger Inc.'s Speedyness, unbeaten in two starts since a change of equipment and tactics, goes after a third straight win and first in stakes company in the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Saturday, Dec. 2 at Laurel Park.
The 42nd running of the Maryland Juvenile co-headlines a nine-race program with the 37th edition of the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly, both for Maryland-bred/sired horses sprinting seven furlongs.
First race post time is 12:25 p.m.
Bred, owned, and trained by Jamie Ness, Speedyness has made five of his six starts at Laurel, three of them wins, including a 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight debut June 16. After going winless in his next three tries, capped by a distant finish in the six-furlong Maryland Million Nursery, Ness switched things up.
“We put the blinkers on and stretched him out and he's turned into a different horse.” Ness said. “His last two races were strong. I think this looks like a good spot. I wish it was a little longer, but we'll see. He's coming in in good form and we expect a big effort.”
Ness has been thrilled with the turnaround from Speedyness, who went gate to wire to win a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance by 1 ½ lengths Oct. 29, just two weeks after Maryland Million. Most recently, he was a front-running 7 ¼-length winner in a similar spot going one mile Nov. 17.
“He's got a lot of natural speed. I kind of just thought that he was a sprinter. He's got that sprinter's build,” Ness said. “But he's got speed and he seems to be able to carry it over a distance of ground and that's always dangerous.”
Speedyness also represents the new direction for Jagger, which won last year's Maryland Million Lassie with another homebred, Chickieness. Ness leads Laurel's calendar year-ending fall meet in wins and is battling with Brittany Russell for most wins at Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course in 2023.
“He's a homebred, so it's always extra nice. We raised him. Me and my wife Mandy, we pulled him out of his mom,” Ness said. “Last year we had just kind of started with our breeding program and we won a Maryland Million race with Chickieness. That was a nice way to start off. Now we've got another one that looks like he's competitive at the same kind of level. We've got a lot of horses, but those are extra special, those kind.”
Jaime Rodriguez, leading both the meet and Maryland for the year in wins, is named to ride from Post 6 in a field of 10. All horses will carry 122 pounds.
Three other horses come into the Juvenile with previous stakes experience, two from the Nursery – Catahoula Moon and King's River. Bryan Minnich's homebred King's River was a 13-length maiden claiming winner before running eighth in his stakes debut, but has rebounded to run second and third behind Speedyness in his last two starts.
Super C Racing Inc.'s Catahoula Moon, a maiden winner at Timonium in September, came from far back to win the Nursery by 4 ½ lengths. Trainer Jerry Robb brought the Golden Lad colt back in the open James F. Lewis III Nov. 11, also sprinting six furlongs, but he found trouble and wound up fifth behind multiple stakes winner Copper Tax.
Andrew Farm, Mountmelick Farm, Ocean Reef Racing, White Mountain Stables and Stonecrest Farm's Call Me Andy comes in from Kentucky to face restricted company for the first time. Trained by Brendan Walsh, the son of Midshipman ran third in the six-furlong Bashford Manor and seven-furlong Ellis Park Juvenile this summer and comes out of a sixth in an optional claiming allowance sprint Oct. 29 in the slop at Churchill Downs.
Hittheroadjak, unbeaten in two starts racing first off the claim for trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon, and stablemate Mister Agent, a maiden claiming winner Nov. 16 at Laurel; Cap Com, Circle P, All the Way and Jumpingjaggerflash are also entered.
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