Jim McKay Maryland Million | Horse Racing Free Tips

2023 Joe Kelly Unsung Hero Award to Betty McCue

Betty McCue has been selected as the winner of the Maryland Million 2023 Joe Kelly Unsung Hero Award. Presented by the Board of Directors of Maryland Million Ltd, the award honors the memory of Maryland Million publicist Joe Kelly and celebrates important characteristics that are valuable, but sometimes go overlooked.

McCue runs EHM Stables with her sister, Evelyn Martin, offering lessons, boarding, lay-ups, sales and leases. In addition, McCue is very active in pony racing. She maintains a large stable of ponies and is an avid participant in the U.S. Pony Racing meets held throughout the year in the Mid-Atlantic.

McCue will be honored at this year's Jim McKay Maryland Million, which will take place at Laurel Park Oct. 14.

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Hello Beautiful Gets Her Third Maryland Million Win With Distaff Victory

It took just over 82 seconds for 4-year-old filly Hello Beautiful to race her way into Maryland Million history.

Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables, and Magic City Stables' Hello Beautiful rolled to her second consecutive front-running victory in the $100,000 Distaff Saturday at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md., becoming just the seventh horse in event history with three Maryland Million wins.

The seven-furlong Distaff for fillies and mares 3 and older was among eight stakes and four starter stakes on the 36th Jim McKay Maryland Million program, 'Maryland's Day at the Races' celebrating the progeny of stallions standing in the state.

Hello Beautiful ($2.40) also won the 2019 Lassie as a 2-year-old among her eight career stakes victories and joins Ben's Cat, Countus In, Docent, Eighttofasttocatch, Mz. Zill Bear, and Hall of Fame mare Safely Kept in the exclusive three-win club. She was greeted with a large round of applause from fans as she returned to the winner's circle.

“It's so special, especially with her. It's a tough game, and to have a filly like her she just kind of keeps you up there. She gives you confidence. She shows you that you can do it. She makes you want to wake up in the morning and do it all over again on the bad days,” winning trainer Brittany Russell said. “I have a barn full of horses because of her, and many clients because of her. She's been so good to us.”

Favored at 1-5 in a field of six that included eight-time stakes winner Street Lute, a 3-year-old facing older horses, and Aug. 21 Miss Disco winner Malibu Beauty, Hello Beautiful broke alertly and quickly inherited the lead, going the first quarter-mile in :22.59 with Malibu Beauty giving closest chase and Street Lute settled in third on the inside.

Jockey Jevian Toledo, subbing for the injured Sheldon Russell, Brittany Russell's husband, had yet to move as Hello Beautiful rolled through a half-mile in :45.65. They drifted out to the two-path once straightened for home when Toledo shook the reins and the daughter of Golden Lad steadily pulled clear of her rivals to win by 3 ½ lengths in 1:22.22.

Malibu Beauty nosed out Street Lute for second, followed by Coconut Cake, Whispering Pines, and Street Lute's stablemate Fille d'Esprit, a winner of three straight making her first start since Dec. 18.

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“She's a really nice horse. She's just a special filly. You can do anything you want with her,” Toledo said. “She's got the speed, so we used her speed to our advantage because the track is pretty fast today. When I asked her, she just took off in the stretch. She just put her head in front and she wouldn't let them go by.”

Sheldon Russell had surgery last week on his right foot, injured in a pre-race spill Sept. 9 at Laurel. He joined his wife, who is expecting the couple's second child, and members of the ownership group in the winner's circle.

“He's the one that made me all emotional. He was screaming like a crazy man in there,” Brittany Russell said. “I felt confident, and he kept going, 'Turn her loose! Turn her loose!' He and Toledo are tight, so Toledo picking up the mount is the next best thing.”

A $6,500 purchase in December 2018, Hello Beautiful earned her third straight win following the July 31 Alma North at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., and Sept. 18 Weather Vane at Laurel, and 10th from 18 career starts, pushing her career bankroll near the $600,000 mark. She is 9-for-11 lifetime over Laurel's main track.

“The way she bounced out of her last one, it didn't seem like a hard effort for her. She just responds,” Russell said. “When we walk her over, she's ready to go. She's been touting herself.”

The post Hello Beautiful Gets Her Third Maryland Million Win With Distaff Victory appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Gonzalez Holds Strong Hand In Advance Of Oct. 24 Jim McKay Maryland Million

Claudio Gonzalez-trained stablemates Harpers First Ride, Galerio and Tap the Mark, each pre-entered for the $150,000 Maryland Million Classic Oct. 24 at Laurel Park, breezed a half-mile over its main track on a busy Saturday morning at the Laurel, Md., track.

The 1 1/8-mile Classic for 3-year-olds and up is the richest of eight stakes and four starter stakes on the 35th Jim McKay Maryland Million program. Created in 1986, “Maryland's Day at the Races” celebrates progeny of stallions standing in the state and the groundbreaking concept has spawned copycat events across North America.

Winner of back-to-back stakes including the historic Pimlico Special (G3) last out Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course, MCA Racing Stable's Harpers First Ride was clocked in 47.80 seconds. It was the fastest move of the Classic trio and ranked seventh among 58 horses at the distance.

Harpers First Ride has won four of his last six starts for Gonzalez, Maryland's leading trainer three years running. Prior to the 1 3/16-mile Pimlico Special, the 4-year-old gelding captured the 1 1/16-mile Deputed Testamony at Laurel, where he has six wins from seven career tries.

Among other Maryland-breds to win the Pimlico Special are Hall of Famers Cigar (1995) and Challedon (1939-40) as well as Include (2001) and Vertex (1958).

Robert D. Bone's Galerio breezed four furlongs in 48 seconds, eighth-fastest of 58 horses, while BB Horses' Tap the Mark went the distance in 48.40, ranking 11th. Entered in a one-mile optional claiming allowance Oct. 22, Galerio also has a stellar record over Laurel's main track with five wins and five seconds from 13 starts. After going winless in eight starts with five seconds in 2019, the 4-year-old gelding has won six of 10 races this year including his most recent, a 1 1/16-mile allowance Sept. 17.

Tap the Mark, a 4-year-old son of late Maryland sire Tritap, exits an optional claiming allowance victory going 1 1/16 miles Oct. 2 at Pimlico over fellow Classic pre-entrants Toughest 'Ombre and Tattooed. He has an overall record of 7-4-3 from 21 starts with nearly $200,000 in purse earnings.

“He is pointing for the Classic,” Gonzalez said. “He breezed really good today. It all depends, if he continues like this we're going to run in the Classic.”

Gonzalez also sent out Bone's Eastern Bay for a half-mile move in 47.70 seconds, second-fastest on the morning. The 6-year-old gelding, winner of the Polynesian Stakes Sept. 5 at Laurel and second by a nose in the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) Oct. 3 at Pimlico, is pre-entered in the $100,000 Maryland Million Sprint for 3-year-olds and up. All three races are at six furlongs.

“All the horses that ran on the big weekend, Preakness weekend, they came back good, especially [Eastern Bay],” Gonzalez said. “We have to wait and see if we get in, but we wanted to be ready.”

Fellow Sprint pre-entrant Onmoregreattime was also on Saturday's work tab, going four furlongs in 49 seconds. Clover Hill Farm Inc. and Clover Hill Racing's 5-year-old gelding, trained by Jerry O'Dwyer, fifth in the Polynesian last out, will be making his fourth straight Million appearance. He finished third in the 2017 Nursery and respectively fourth and sixth in the 2018 and 2019 Sprint for previous trainer John Robb.

Robb has a pair of promising juveniles in Lucky 7 Stables' undefeated Street Lute and No Guts No Glory Farm's Moochie, each pre-entered in both the $100,000 Nursery for 2-year-olds and $100,000 Lassie for 2-year-old fillies. Both worked five furlongs Saturday at Laurel, with Moochie going in 1:02 (fifth-fastest of 16 horses) and Street Lute in 1:02.20 (ranking eighth).

Street Lute, by Street Magician, has made both her starts this year at Delaware Park, winning a five-furlong maiden special weight Sept. 7 and the 5 1/2-furlong Small Wonder Stakes Sept. 26, the latter by five lengths. Moochie was a debut winner June 29 at Delaware, then got loose and was fractious at the gate before running seventh in the Colleen, a turf sprint stakes Aug. 2 at Monmouth Park.

Another notable worker Saturday was 3-year-old filly Coconut Cake, going a half-mile in 49.20 seconds. Owned by NRS Stable, James Chambers and trainer Tim Keefe's Avalon Farm, the daughter of 2014 General George (G3) winner Bandbox has won her last three starts and was beaten a half-length when third on debut May 31, her only loss.

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‘A Fun Horse To Have Around,’ Keefe Looking Ahead To Maryland Million With Coconut Cake

Sophomore filly Coconut Cake, two necks away from being undefeated in her young career, is under consideration to make her stakes debut in the $100,000 Maryland Million Distaff Saturday, Oct. 24 at Laurel Park.

Owned by NRS Stable, James Chambers and her trainer, Tim Keefe, Coconut Cake worked a half-mile in 48.80 seconds Saturday morning on Laurel's main track under jockey Kevin Gomez, who has been aboard for each of her last two races.

The time ranked 12th of 70 horses Saturday. Coconut Cake, a daughter of 2014 General George (G3) winner Bandbox bred in Maryland by Mr. and Mrs. Charles McGinnes, has strung together three consecutive wins sprinting on both turf and dirt.

Past winners of the six-furlong Distaff include Hall of Famer Safely Kept, who captured three straight editions from 1989-91; Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed Willa On the Move (2003); and multiple stakes winners Crabcakes (2017-18) and Anna's Bandit (2019).

“My intention right now is to run her in the Maryland Million Distaff,” Keefe said. “I love Maryland Million. It's my favorite day of the year, I've always said that. [She] makes it a whole lot more exciting. I don't want to get too far out there; we've still got two weeks to go. But, she worked this morning and had a super work. I was very pleased with her work. She looks good afterwards. We've got one more work with her, a little easier work next week. We'll kind of keep all our feet on the ground until the 24th.”

Keefe purchased Coconut Cake for $30,000 out of Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonum in October 2018. He brought in partners after she made her debut May 31 at Laurel, where she was beaten two necks while third at odds of 22-1 with Sheldon Russell up.

“The catalog page drew me to her. I liked her conformation, I liked her walk, I liked her demeanor; I liked everything about her,” Keefe said. “On top of that, I like buying horses from Charlie and Cynthia. They breed a good horse, they raise a good horse so there's no worries there. I've had good luck with that.

“I had to give more for her than I thought. I guess there was another person who liked her, as well,” he added. “Bandbox is a local stallion but he was still fairly young and he didn't have a lot out there running. Obviously I liked her that much that I bought her for myself and then split her up right after the race with two of my partners. They both wanted in so I sold them each a third. That's how we got her.”

Coconut Cake graduated by 1 1/4 lengths under Forest Boyce in a 5 1/2-furlong waiver maiden claiming sprint on the grass second time out July 18. She beat winners at first asking in an off-the-turf allowance at the same distance Aug. 22, getting up by a nose, and extended her streak with a half-length triumph going six furlongs on the dirt Sept. 17.

“In the beginning when Sheldon was working her he always liked her, and he's a real good judge of a horse in the morning. I've had great luck with him, getting his thoughts and opinions on horses, and she had always done what we had asked her to do in the morning,” Keefe said. “I wasn't really sure how good she was going to be but I thought she was going to be decent. To go out and watch her run, obviously she's got the ability. But, she's also got that desire which some horses have and some don't. You can't train that in a horse. The horse has to come with that, and she has that desire to really want to get there first.”

Keefe, who owns five career Maryland Million wins including three in the Classic with Eighttofasttocatch (2011, 2013-14), said talent is, well, just icing on the cake for his rising stable star who has banked $81,245 in purse earnings.

“On top of all that, she's got an awesome personality. She's always got her head out of the stall, she's always got her ears pricked, she's always happy,” Keefe said. “She's never grouchy, she's never in a bad mood, she's just a happy horse with a wonderful personality. She's just a fun horse to have around.”

Pre-entries are due Wednesday, Oct. 14 for the Jim McKay Maryland Million, celebrating its 35^th anniversary in 2020.

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