Having exited the first loss of his 3-year-old season in good shape, Euro Stable's multiple stakes winner Lebda is under consideration for the $1 million Haskell (G1) July 18 at Monmouth Park.
Based at Laurel Park with summer meet-leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez, Lebda is among 34 horses nominated to the 1 1/8-mile Haskell, which this year will serve as a points qualifier to the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby (G1).
Gonzalez said he expects to make a decision this week after speaking with Euro's Valter Ramos, who paid $3,000 by the June 4 deadline to make Lebda a late nominee to the Triple Crown.
“I have to talk to the owner, and we want to see who's going to come for the Haskell. We might take a look at that race,” Gonzalez said. “You never know. We're going to see how he continues to do, and then we'll decide.”
Live racing resumed in Maryland May 30 but with stakes races on hold, Gonzalez targeted the 1 1/8-mile Ohio Derby (G3) June 27 for Lebda's return. Sent off as the fourth choice in a field of 13 at odds of 6-1, Lebda pressed an opening quarter in 22.80 seconds and then led after a half in 47.22 before tiring to sixth.
“He came back good,” Gonzalez said. “He went really fast the first quarter; 22 [seconds] for a mile and an eighth is a little too fast.”
Monmouth would be the sixth different track for Lebda, a winner of four of nine career starts with one second and two thirds, both in the stakes – the 1/16-mile Iroquois (G3) last fall in Kentucky and the seven-furlong Heft at Laurel in his juvenile finale.
“I think it would be good because the track over there is always [good] for the speed horses,” Gonzalez said of Monmouth. “You have to be right there. That's why maybe it fits good for him. We'll see.”
Gonzalez may have another horse to bring to New Jersey in MCA Racing Stable's Harpers First Ride, an impressive one-mile allowance winner July 3 at Laurel over a graded-stakes quality field that included Alwaysmining, Cordmaker, Name Changer and Honor the Fleet.
Harpers First Ride is nominated to the 1 1/8-mile Monmouth Cup (G3) on the Haskell undercard. The 4-year-old gelding has won five of seven starts since being haltered by Gonzalez out of a maiden claiming triumph last fall in Kentucky.
“We nominated for the Monmouth Cup and I'm 50-50 to run there,” Gonzalez said. “For now, he's doing really good and he came back really good from the race. I'm going to take a couple more days to decide. I think this horse will run better going a little longer.”
Harpers First Ride, yet to make his stakes debut, led nearly all the way in his recent 1 ¾-length victory over a quartet that had a combined 15 stakes wins including Name Changer's 2018 Monmouth Cup score. Last year, Alwaysmining swept Laurel's series for 3-year-olds and competed in the Preakness (G1) while Cordmaker was beaten two necks when third in the historic Pimlico Special (G3).
“That field was really tough. They are really good horses,” Gonzalez said. “You know what happened with this horse? Every race, he came back better and better. He's a really cool horse. He's not crazy. He's all business. I don't have any trouble with him at all. He's doing really good.”
Gonzalez said he was also proud of Magic Stable's Princess Cadey's effort in a troubled third-place finish in the July 4 Delaware Oaks (G3), her first race since taking Laurel's Beyond the Wire March 14.
“I'm very happy with her. She didn't break that great, and I wanted to see her right there in the clear because always she doesn't like dirt in the face,” Gonzalez said. “She didn't break good and she came [from] last and she still finished third. She came back good, and I'm very happy for her and how she ran. She ran big. It wasn't how I wanted the trip, that's why I'm so happy for her.”
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