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Familiar Stables, And A Few Newcomers, Converging At Fair Grounds This Winter

A deep and competitive backstretch will be that much tougher this winter when Fair Grounds opens their 149th meet Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 26, as several new trainers will make their presence felt for the first time. The who's who list is led by reigning four-time Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown, who will have 24 stalls and joins two-time defending champion Brad Cox, along with perennial powers Ron Faucheux, Tom Amoss and Steve Asmussen, in making up one of the most talented and well-stocked group of conditioners to have ever descended on Fair Grounds.

Brown, based primarily in New York for the first decade of his career, has branched out in recent years and put down roots in Kentucky this year for the first time, which created a natural progression towards Fair Grounds.

“Being in the Midwest at Churchill Downs, and with things going well, we felt it made a lot of sense to bring a division to Fair Grounds and try to establish a year-round circuit,” Brown said. “We're optimistic that we can be competitive down there this winter.”

Brown, who has long had the deepest and most talented grass horses in the country, is familiar with Fair Grounds' biggest turf stakes, the Muniz Memorial Classic (G2), as he shipped Bricks and Mortar in to win the race in 2019, in what helped kickstart a Horse of the Year campaign that ended with a win in the Breeders' Cup Turf. While he plans on taking advantage of the local turf course, he expects to be well represented on all levels.

“Right now, we're still finalizing who we're going to bring down there and what kind of horses fit best, regardless of what class or division it might be,” Brown said. “We'll look over the condition book and see, on a horse-by-horse basis, what makes the most sense. If we have a lot of horses for the same condition it makes sense to separate them. And certainly, we'll keep our clients in mind as well, as some like to race in certain spots, based on where they are located.”

Brown is based at Palm Meadows in South Florida during the winter and will still call that home, which means Whit Beckman, a Louisville native who oversaw the Kentucky division this year, will be running the shedrow at Fair Grounds.

“Whit has been with us a few years now and has done a terrific job with the Kentucky string this year,” Brown said. “He's proven himself to be an excellent horseman and will be familiar with a lot of the horses we send to Fair Grounds.”

Though the list of newcomers is clearly led by Brown, there are several other nationally recognized trainers who will have a string at Fair Grounds this winter, including Norm Casse, who will have 21 stalls, while Ignacio Correas (26), Cherie DeVaux (22), Tommy Drury (6), Austin Gustafson (22), Anthony Quartarolo (14), Kelly Rubley (15), and Shane Wilson (40) are all new faces.

A smaller presence at Fair Grounds in recent years, Keith Desormeaux (25) has upped the ante for 2020-21. He's enjoyed local success in the past, winning the Risen Star (G2) in 2013 with 135-1 longshot Ive Struck a Nerve, while Drury could bring G2 winning 3-year-old Art Collector to run in next season's handicap division.

Cox, who pulled clear late last year and won the trainer's title with 40 wins, is the favorite to win it this year and will have the maximum allotted 44 stalls, as will Faucheux, who ran second with 34 wins. Amoss (29 wins) and Asmussen (26) also have 44 stalls, as do top-10 trainers Bret Calhoun, Joe Sharp, Al Stall, and Mike Stidham.

The jockey's race was a meet-long battle last year, as James Graham booted home 63 winners to outlast Mitchell Murrill by one and Colby Hernandez by three, and the trio will again lead the way this year. Florent Geroux (56 wins), Brian Hernandez Jr. (44), Adam Beschizza (44), Shaun Bridgmohan (38), Gabriel Saez (35), and Miguel Mena (32) were all in the top-10 and will be back this winter as well.

Opening Day marks the first of 76 racing days as Fair Grounds will run through March 28. There will be over $7 million in stakes races, highlighted by the March 20, $1 million Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby. A pocket schedule, along with a complete list of the stakes schedule, can be found here: https://www.fairgroundsracecourse.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-2021-THOROUGHBRED-RACING-AND-STAKES-CALENDAR.pdf

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Grand Slams for Great Notion, Sheldon Russell on MD Million Day

Great Notion, Maryland’s annual leading sire by earnings since 2018, showcased the prowess of his progeny on the 35th Jim McKay Maryland Million program at Laurel Park Saturday by accounting for four of the eight winners of stakes carded for the offspring of stallions standing in Maryland. The grand slam marks the 11th consecutive year that Great Notion has sired at least one winner on Maryland Million day.

Not to be outdone, jockey Sheldon Russell blasted home a quartet of winners as well, three of them in stakes. He captured top honors in the afternoon’s feature with a nervy, forwardly placed 3 1/4-length victory aboard the 6-1 Monday Morning Qb (Imagining) in the $150,000 Classic S.

Laurel’s second-leading rider in both wins and earnings at the current meet also rallied from last to nail the $100,000 Turf S. by a length with 15-1 Pretty Good Year (Great Notion). And Russell seemed like he was just along for the front-running ride about the day’s most impressive winner, the $100,000 Distaff H.’s 1-2 favorite, Hello Beautiful (Golden Lad), an 11 1/4-length victress trained by the jockey’s wife, Brittany Russell.

Owner/breeders came out on top in three Million divisions Oct. 24. But none championed the cause for smaller outfits better than Great Notion’s final winner of the day, Karan’s Notion, who wired the $100,000 Sprint H. field by a length at 16-1 for owner/breeder/trainer Nancy Heil and jockey Yomar Ortiz.

“I don’t believe it’s real yet. I’ve been training 50-some years, but I’ve never had a [Maryland Million] eligible horse,” said Heil, who entered the day with two wins from just 15 starters in 2020. “When he was a baby, he had these long legs, like spider legs, and we said, ‘I think he’s going to be the one.’

“Never give up,” Heil added emphatically.

Monday Morning Qb apparently took Heil’s advice to heart in the nine-furlong Classic. Earlier this season, the Cash is King and LC Racing color bearer held his own in open-company races behind deeper-end-of-the-pool sophomores like Happy Saver (Super Saver), Ny Traffic (Cross Traffic) and Max Player (Honor Code), all of whom went on to either win or hit the board in Grade I stakes.

After an 11th-place turf try in a stakes on the GI Preakness S. undercard, trainer Butch Reid Jr. refocused on the Maryland Million’s calling-card race for Monday Morning Qb, and the large-framed colt ended up being the only 3-year-old in the Classic.

“We’ll digest this one a little bit. I’m hoping we can find one more 3-year-old race before the end of the year, but they’re going to be difficult to find,” Reid said. “I’ve taken some stalls at Palm Meadows this winter so he’ll probably end up down there with us.”

This year the Turf was elongated from a mile to nine furlongs, and Pretty Good Year, who was third in the 2019 edition, showed he appreciated the added real estate by uncorking a wide-and-driving tailgate move under Russell to earn the win for Lead Off Stable, whose principal, Bobby Goodyear, is the racing manager for the 4-year-old gelding’s breeder, The Elkstone Group.

Beyond the play-on-words naming that ties together owner and horse, Pretty Good Year also happens to be Goodyear’s only campaigner.

“Distance has always been his thing,” trainer Kelly Rubley said. “We keep hitting these one-turn miles here and he hits the board and he picks up checks, but the longer the better for him. At the three-eighths pole, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, we have a lot of horse.'”

A return to her home court after a last-place stakes foray to Ellis Park and a Grade II stakes sixth at Saratoga Race Course was the turnaround spark that ignited Hello Beautiful’s dazzling romp in the Distaff H. over seven furlongs.

Owned in partnership by Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables and Magic City Stables, all of the 3-year-old filly’s five wins have now come over the Laurel main track–by a gaudy aggregate of 40 1/2 lengths.

Brittany Russell said that last year’s champion Maryland-bred juvenile filly is not only special in her own right, but that Hello Beautiful’s sparkling career arc has enabled her training business to grow in Maryland by attracting the attention of new owners who have entrusted Russell with fresh stock.

“It’s huge. It’s very emotional. She’s been a big part of my career. I have clients and horses in the barn because of her,” Brittany Russell said.

In the Maryland Million’s pair of six-furlong juvenile stakes, the male division produced the flashier winner from a visual perspective. But the filly division produced the faster clocking.

In the $100,000 Maryland Million Nursery, trainer Dale Capuano saddled the one-two finishers.

Owned in partnership by with Louis Ulman and Neil Glasser, Kenny Had a Notion (Great Notion) ran his lifetime record to 3-for-4 with an inside stalking bid during which he first had to be ridden with restraint by jockey Jorge Ruiz to avoid running up into a tight pocket at the rail. But when given his head and clear passage, “Kenny” slipped deftly through at the fence, spurted clear, and left a number of legit chasers sputtering in his five-length wake.

Stablemate Alwaysinahurry rounded out the Great Notion-sired and Capuano-trained exacta.

“They’re both nice,” Capuano said. “Kenny is getting better and so is Alwaysinahurry. [Kenny] showed more speed than I thought he would. He was on the bit very early and the rider had to just get a seam and lucky the rail opened up and he got through.”

In the $100,000 Maryland Million Lassie, Miss Nondescript (Mossler) stalked from fourth in a strung-out field, advanced at will on far turn, then responded to deep-stretch urging from Trevor McCarthy in a long outside drive to prevail by a hard-fought neck.

Now 2-for-2 for owner/breeder Barak Farm, Miss Nondescript followed up her pace-pressing Monmouth Park maiden victory by showing a new dimension in rating from farther back.

Her victory represented the first stakes winner for freshman sire Mosler, who was a GSP turf sprint and middle-distance specialist. Although primarily based in New York for trainer Bill Mott, one of Mosler’s two stakes wins occurred over the Laurel grass course at six furlongs in the 2016 Laurel Dash.

The final clocking in the Lassie (1:10.13) bested the same-distance time produced three races later in the Nursery (1:10.55).

This year marked the return of the $100,000 Turf Sprint H. to the Maryland Million program following a seven-year absence. It had been won in each of its final three years by the late Maryland fan favorite Ben’s Cat.

Fiya (Friesan Fire), who began his career last November as a $25,000 maiden-claimer but was purchased for $400,000 at the Wanamaker’s July online sale after a 98-Beyer win that was .25 seconds off the Laurel turf course record for 5 1/2 furlongs, got pounded to 1-10 odds for the grass dash over the same distance on Saturday. He delivered with a 2 1/4-length tally that lifted his 2020 record to 4-for-4. Tom Albertrani trains for owner Robert Masiello. It was one of three wins on the day for jockey Trevor McCarthy.

Vivian Rall’s homebred Epic Idea (Great Notion), a two-time winner sprinting on the turf, successfully stretched out to 1 1/8 miles to win by three-quarters of a length, garnering her first career stakes win in the $100,000 Maryland Million Ladies S. The 5-1 wire-to-wire victress was ridden by McCarthy and trained by Ann Merryman.

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Pint-Sized Pretty Good Year Surprises In Maryland Million Turf

Lead Off Stable's diminutive gelding Pretty Good Year, standing just 13 hands tall, came with a steady run down the center of the track to catch leaders Cannon's Roar and favored Nick Papagiorgio and spring a 15-1 upset of Saturday's $100,000 Maryland Million Turf at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

Extended another furlong to 1 1/8 miles from 2019, the Turf for 3-year-olds and up was among eight stakes and four starter stakes on the 35th Jim McKay Maryland Million program, 'Maryland's Day at the Races' celebrating the progeny of stallions standing in the state, highlighted by the $150,000 Classic.

Pretty Good Year ($32) gave jockey Sheldon Russell his third win of the day, following Hello Beautiful in the $100,000 Distaff and Jumpstartmyheart in the opener. It was also the third win for sire Great Notion, extending his streak to 11 straight years with a Maryland Million winner and moving him into sole possession of third on the all-time list with 16.

Based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., Pretty Good Year's owner is Bobby Goodyear, racing manager for the 4-year-old gelding's breeder, Stuart Grant's The Elkstone Group. Elkstone also bred and owns Classic contender Top Line Growth.

“It's pretty amazing. I am so proud of this horse, you have no idea,” trainer Kelly Rubley said. “[Goodyear] just loved this horse from the day he was born and look at how it's paid off for him. It's just remarkable. What a neat little horse for this man to have picked out of the field and said, 'He's the one.' He's just 13 hands. He's very small.”

Rising Perry and Seville Barber were in front through a quarter-mile in 24.17 seconds and a half in 48.46, with Nick Papagiorgio biding his time in the clear in third and Cannon's Roar chasing in between horses. Nick Papagiorgio forged a short lead off the turn at the top of the stretch until being passed with a rail move from Cannon's Roar, while Pretty Good Year fanned wide to reel in the front-runners.

“Distance has always been his thing,” Rubley said. “We keep hitting these one-turn miles here and he hits the board and he picks up checks, but the longer the better for him. At the three-eighths pole, I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, we have a lot of horse.'”

Cannon's Roar was second, snapping a three-race win streak, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Nick Papagiorgio, the 8-5 top choice that had had won five of his last six starts, the only loss coming by a nose. It was 5 1/4 lengths back to defending Turf champion Mr. d'Angelo in fourth.

Pretty Good Year closed from far back to be third in last year's Turf, also with Russell aboard, but had never won on the grass.

“Last year he ran a really good third in the race and I probably had him a little too far back,” Russell said, “but, he had put in some pretty decent races on the dirt and it just happened to work out today. I felt like we had an honest pace, he's a deep-end closer and loves to be on the outside. I just stayed out of his way. At the three-eighths pole I was fully loaded and I knew that as soon as I got to the outside he was going to stretch his legs.”

Pretty Good Year was pre-entered in the Classic but Rubley opted to keep him on turf when the Classic drew only four Maryland-sired horses, allowing Maryland-breds like program favorite and Pimlico Special (G3) Harpers First Ride to run.

“What an experience,” Rubley said. “We were actually hoping the Classic wouldn't open this year because it's a mile and an eighth on dirt, and he runs on both. It would have been very exciting, but we'll certainly take this.”

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‘Very Fast Horse’: Track Record Holder Top Line Growth Headlines Sunday’s Salvator Mile

Different year, different horse, different Monmouth Park graded stakes race. But, trainer Kelly Rubley hopes, a similar result.

A year after the Maryland-based trainer shipped in with Divisidero to win the Grade 3 Red Bank Stakes, Rubley will look for history to repeat when she sends out Laurel track record holder Top Line Growth in Sunday's $150,000 Grade 3 Salvator Mile, the feature on Monmouth Park's 14-race card that day.

“Certainly that's the hope,” she said.

After making his 4-year-old debut in impressive fashion with a 5½-length romp at Laurel on Aug. 14 – a race in which he threatened his own track record for a mile – Top Line Growth will face seven challengers in the Salvator Mile his quest for his first graded stakes score.

The gelded son of Tapizar returned following a 10½-month layoff to sizzle a mile in 1:34.74 to launch his 2020 campaign. He set the Laurel track record for that distance on June 8, 2019 when he covered the distance in 1:34.07.

“It was very impressive,” Rubley said of Top Line Growth's comeback race. “He toyed with the track record he currently holds. He's a very fast horse.

“We have always felt he was a nice horse. We felt he deserved to try this race. His last race he had the conditions so we figured why not try it. It was a great start back. You hope you're not over-facing them when they're coming off a long layoff. Obviously, he was ready in that spot.”

Top Line Growth has consistently displayed two traits during his career: He likes to win and he loves eight furlongs. Owned and bred by The Elkstone Group LLC, Top Line Growth is 5-for-8 lifetime and 3-for-3 at a mile. Two of his career losses have come in Grade 3 stakes races: A third-place finish in the Smarty Jones at Parx last Sept. 2 and a fourth-place finish in the West Virginia Derby on Aug. 3 of last year.

“The race at Parx was one of his better ones numbers-wise,” said Rubley. “It was a bit of an off-track and I thought he did very well.

“We always thought he was a nice horse. He was a big, growing horse at 2, so he didn't start until he was 3. Luckily the owners were wonderful in giving me the time to develop him. He certainly showed up his first start.”

That was April 22 of last year, when Top Line Growth made his racing debut with a 9½-length victory.

Among the horses Top Line Growth will face in the Salvator Mile is Pirate's Punch, who was disqualified from first in his last start on Aug. 22 in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park. Trainer Chad Brown will send out Grade 1 winner Valid Point, with the colt trying dirt for the first time in his career.

Rubley, whose only two career graded stakes wins have come with Divisidero, has enlisted Joe Bravo to ride Top Line Growth.

“Joe rode him at Parx so he knows him,” said Rubley, who started training in 2014. “I felt that was a logical move.”

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