Stakes-winning stablemates Candy Light and Sparkle Blue, each making their third start of the year, seek to break through with the first win of their 4-year-old season in Saturday's $100,000 Big Dreyfus at Laurel Park.
The fourth running of the Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and older is the first of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race program, followed by the Prince George's County for 3-year-olds and up, 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.
Fortune Racing's Candy Light, by Candy Ride, made her season debut in a one-mile optional claiming allowance May 21 at Churchill Downs and ran fifth by 2 ¼ lengths in a race where each of the top three finishers came back to win stakes in their subsequent start, including Henrietta Topham in the Mint Julep (G3).
Stretched out to 1 1/16 miles next out in a similar spot June 15 at Ellis Park, Candy Light came with a wide run to be second as the favorite, beaten 1 ¼ lengths. Both races came after concluding her sophomore season winning the Tropical Park Oaks in December, rained off the grass to Gulfstream Park's all-weather Tapeta surface.
“I was encouraged by the race at Ellis,” trainer Graham Motion said. “I thought in her first race she broke awkwardly and that hurt her chances, and probably she needed the race. I thought her second race back was very good and I'm hoping that sets her up for a stakes performance.”
Candy Light was second by a head in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight in October 2021 on the Laurel turf in her career debut. She graduated going a mile over Laurel's main track last February then ran second in the Beyond the Wire and 10th in the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) before being returned to the grass where she has a win, three seconds and a third in eight tries.
“I think she handles all of the surfaces, but I do think she handles grass the best,” Motion said. “We did give her a freshening after she won the stake in Florida, not that she had to have it for any specific reason just that we thought she needed a little break. She's come back well. She's going to have to step up again. It's not an easy spot, but I think after her last two races she will be competitive. It's a good distance for her.”
Feargal Lynch rides Candy Light from Post 2 in a field of eight.
Catherine Parke and Augustin Stable's Sparkle Blue will break alongside Candy Light from Post 3 with Jorge Ruiz aboard. Out of the Smart Strike mare Silk n' Sapphire, Sparkle Blue is a half to graded-stakes winners Colonial Flag and Shared Account, the latter a millionaire trained by Motion to victory in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) that subsequently produced 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) winner Sharing.
In her two races this year Sparkle Blue was sixth by 4 ¼ lengths in the 1 1/8-mile Modesty (G3) May 5 and third, beaten 3 ½ lengths, in the 1 ½-mile Keertana May 27, both at Churchill. The Big Dreyfus will be her eighth consecutive stakes start, half of them in graded company.
“I'm not exactly sure what distance she wants to go. I thought she handled a mile and a half last time,” Motion said. “The first race I ran her at Churchill came up a very competitive race. This should give her a little bit of class relief coming out of the graded races. She's been very consistent. She's a good competitor and it's a family we've had a lot of luck with, obviously.”
Fourth behind Consumer Spending in the 2021 Selima at Laurel in her second career start, Sparkle Blue won the Christiana last July at Delaware Park to open her sophomore season, ran second in the Virginia Oaks, won the 1 1/16-mile Valley View (G3) and Keeneland and was third by less than a length in Santa Anita's American Oaks (G1) before getting the winter off.
“She was very competitive, and I think she just kept improving every time we ran her last year,” Motion said. “She's been running pretty much in graded races, so this is a little bit of class relief for her and we'll see how she handles it. I like the distance for her.”
Trainer Arnaud Delacour won the inaugural 2019 Big Dreyfus with I'm So Fancy and he returns this year with Adelphia Racing Club, Cutair Racing and Dark Horse Racing Stable's Community Adjusted. Previously trained by Christophe Clement, the 5-year-old mare made her season debut a winning one June 3 at historic Pimlico Race Course, drawing off to win a second-level optional claiming allowance by 2 ¼ lengths going 1 1/16 miles.
“That was a perfect race. She was able to save ground and come with a good run at the end. I was very happy with that, and she came back well,” Delacour said. “She's doing really well. I really like the way she's training. Of course, we are stepping up a little bit but I think she deserves a shot.”
Community Adjusted was fourth or better in eight of 11 starts for Clement with two wins, one second and one third. The Big Dreyfus will mark her stakes debut and she retains the services of jockey Victor Carrasco, aboard last out.
“I'm very happy about that. He likes the filly so we're very excited to run,” Delacour said. “She's a lovely, good-looking mare. She's a really big, strong filly with a good pedigree so it only makes sense to try to get some black type now. It's a tougher race, but hopefully she can step up and be competitive.”
Clement will be represented in the Big Dreyfus by Michaela Faust, West Point Thoroughbreds and Winters Equine's Atomic Blonde, a German-bred that the trainer picked out of the Arqana Breeding Stock sale last December in France for $316,225. She won a Group 3 going 1 ¼ miles on the grass in Milan and placed in two other European group stakes before coming arriving in the U.S.
Atomic Blonde has placed in each of her three North American starts, taking a lead into the stretch before settling for third behind stablemate Amazing Grace – who cost nearly $900,000 at the same French sale – and Personal Best in debut in the 1 ½-mile Orchid (G3) April 1 at Gulfstream Park. She followed up running third to Higher Truth and Virginia Joy in the 1 3/8-mile Sheepshead Bay (G2) May 5 and second, beaten two lengths, by Skims in a third-level optional claiming allowance June 16, both at Belmont Park.
“She's just a beautiful filly. So far, she's been ultra consistent,” West Point executive vice president Tom Bellhouse said. “A little unlucky just on race setups, but we're excited. I think we're in a good spot in the race down at Laurel and I think we'll be a contender.”
Jaime Rodriguez, who leads Laurel's ongoing summer meet standings with 16 wins, will ride Atomic Blonde from Post 6.
“We were excited to get him on her,” Bellhouse said. “This is the time of year where it's tough racing everywhere and I think she definitely fits and will gave a great account of herself.
“She's been very versatile,” he added. “Obviously, the Orchid was a huge test off the layoff. Jose Ortiz rode her that day and he made a real aggressive move on the turn and tried to kick on and win it, and we just got run down a little late. The fillies that she's been running against are all top-notch fillies. We feel really good about our chances.”
NRS Stable, James Chambers and Avalon Farm's Coconut Cake wheels back in the Big Dreyfus two weeks following her come-from-behind three-quarter-length victory in the six-furlong Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired horses July 1 over a Laurel turf rated good. Fourth, beaten two lengths, in last year's Big Dreyfus, the 6-year-old Bandbox mare was twice stakes-placed on both turf and dirt before breaking through in the 1 1/8-mile Maryland Million Ladies last October.
William Pape's homebred Deciding Vote was second at odds of 11-1 in the Big Dreyfus after winning Laurel's Dahlia and running fourth in Parx's Neshaminy to open 2022. The overall Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series champion last year is again making her third start off the layoff in the Big Dreyfus, having run fourth in the Dahlia and most recently second in the PTHA President's Cup June 18 at Parx.
Also entered are Lugamo Racing Stable's Lady Puchi, runner-up in the 2022 Searching at Laurel racing first time for trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon; and Super C Racing's Cupid's Strike, a two-time winner that was fifth in last year's off-the-turf Searching.
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