Mark Grier's Grade 3 winner Eons, beaten favorite in each of his last two races, will attempt to regain his winning form while defending his title in Saturday's $100,000 Prince George's County at Laurel Park.
The fourth running of the Prince George's County for 3-year-olds and up is the second of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race program, preceded by the Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and older, also scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the Exceller turf course, and Caesar's Wish for fillies and mares 3 and up going one mile on the main track.
Post time is 12:25 p.m.
This will be the third straight year in the Prince George's County for Eons, based with Arnaud Delacour at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. The 7-year-old son of Giant's Causeway was third, beaten two lengths by multiple graded-stakes winner Pixelate, in 2021 and finished second by a nose last year but was promoted to the win following the disqualification of first-place finisher English Tavern for interference.
Eons opened this year running a troubled seventh in an open 1 1/16-mile allowance in April at Keeneland. His two subsequent starts have both come in optional claimers at Laurel, finishing second by 1 ½ lengths to Sky's Not Falling going one mile May 6 and third, 4 ½ lengths behind stablemate Doctor Davis June 17, also at 1 1/16 miles.
“A lot of it depends on the setup for Eons. The last time there was not a strong pace, and he was kind of behind. He was coming. He ran a good race; he was just coming a little too late,” Delacour said. “I hope the added distance helps and hopefully it will be kind of a softer turf. Not that he likes it soft, but the last time it was really firm and speed-favoring and it was hard to make up ground. Hopefully the combination of both can help him to be very competitive. On his best days, he fits with that bunch.”
Eons has a win, a second and a third in three lifetime tries over the Laurel turf. His biggest victory came in the 2019 Kent (G3) at Delaware Park to cap a career-high four-race win streak. Other stakes wins have come in the 2019 Stanton, also at Delaware, 2021 Buckland at Colonial Downs and 2022 Bensalem at Parx, the latter clinching the 3-year-old and up long turf division title in the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series.
Overall, Eons owns seven wins and nearly $550,000 in purse earnings from 27 starts. Victor Carrasco is named to ride from Post 5 in a field of eight.
“He's always the kind of horse where you don't really know what to expect going into a race, because everything depends on the setup,” Delacour said. “He's just a little bit one-paced so he needs a lot of pace to run after. We'll see if we can get that.”
Fellow Fair Hill trainer Graham Motion entered the pair of Royal Patronage and Pao Alto. Highclere Thoroughbred Racing's 4-year-old Royal Patronage was a two-time group-stakes winner in England before coming to the U.S. last spring, finishing fifth by less than two lengths in the 1 ¼-mile Belmont Derby (G1) in his North American debut.
Moved to Motion following the race, Royal Patronage finished off the board in the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1) and Virginia Derby (G3) before getting the rest of the year off. He returned with a determined neck triumph in an open allowance April 20 at Keeneland and most recently ran fifth by three lengths in the Arlington (G3) June 3 at Churchill Downs, both races contested at 1 1/16 miles.
“I thought when he won the first time out this year, he did it the right way. He did it how we'd hope he would do it,” Motion said. “I was a little disappointed with his last race. I thought he ran huge at Keeneland. We kind of put it down to the ground being very firm at Churchill on that new turf course, so I'm hoping some of the rain this week might help us a little bit. But he's done well since the race.”
Feargal Lynch rides Royal Patronage from Post 2.
“I think the mile and an eighth is a good trip for him,” Motion said. “He might even appreciate a little further.”
Wertheimer & Frere's Pao Alto drew outermost Post 8 under Jorge Ruiz for the Prince George's County. Bred in France like his stablemate, the 6-year-old gelding won group stakes in Europe and Qatar but makes his first start in 5 ½ months still seeking his first North American victory.
“He's perhaps been a little bit disappointing in the afternoon because he trains like a nice horse,” Motion said. “I'm hoping that the freshening has done him good. He had been running pretty consistently when he came to me last year in the fall.”
Pao Alto's stateside debut came last September at historic Pimlico Race Course, when he ran second by 1 ½ lengths in the Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G1). Two starts later he was third in the one-mile Artie Schiller over a yielding Aqueduct course and he raced twice last winter at Gulfstream Park, finishing seventh in the 1 1/8-mile Fort Lauderdale (G2) and eighth in the 1 ½-mile W. L. McKnight (G3), the latter Jan. 28.
“He ended up being a little disappointing in Florida so we decided it was a good time to give him a break. He spent a month or two in Ocala and then joined us this spring, and he has done well since. He hasn't really missed a beat since he came back to us,” Motion said. “It's a competitive race but I certainly think they both stack up.”
Trainer Ken McPeek also has two entrants in Camp Hope and Tiz the Bomb. Walking L Thoroughbreds' Camp Hope, winner of the 2021 Bryan Station at Keeneland, is the 124-pound topweight that was beaten by two lengths when seventh in the 2022 Louisville (G3) and fifth in the July 1 Wise Dan (G2) at Ellis Park, his most recent start.
As a 2-year-old in 2021, Magdalena Racing's Tiz the Bomb won the Bourbon (G2) and Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile and was second by 1 ½ lengths in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1). He won the John Battaglia Memorial and Jeff Ruby (G3) on Turfway Park's all-weather surface to earn a trip to the 2022 Kentucky Derby (G1), where he ran ninth. Tiz the Bomb hasn't finished better than fourth in eight subsequent races, beaten less than a length last time out in the 1 ¼-mile Chorleywood June 17 on the turf at Ellis.
Completing the field are R. Larry Johnson and R.D.M. Racing Stable's Sky's Not Falling, the 2022 Maryland Million Turf Sprint winner that beat Eons two starts back; Runnymoore Racing's Beacon Hill, making his 6-year-old debut for trainer Michael Matz after going winless in seven 2022 starts including second by a neck in an off-the-turf Japan Turf Cup at Laurel and sixth in the Prince George's County; and Upland Flats Racing's stakes-placed Royne, who finished second between Doctor Davis and Eons last out June 17 at Laurel.
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