Back From New York, Leading Maryland Apprentice Marquez Says ‘There’s Nothing Like Home’

Having spent the fall and early winter chasing his dream in New York, teenage jockey Charlie Marquez – Maryland's leading apprentice rider of 2020 – is back in familiar surroundings at Laurel Park.

Marquez, who turns 18 Jan. 25, had two mounts as live racing returned to Laurel on Friday. The Columbia, Md., native finished second with Milam Racing Stables' Hydra in Race 2, a starter optional claimer for older females, and was seventh after pressing the pace on Komlo LLC's Determined Honor in Race 3, a maiden special weight for 3-year-old fillies..

“[Hydra] ran very well. I knew Vic's Cool Cat was going to be tough and I thought [1-2 favorite Uno Tigress] was going to be tough in there, too, but I don't think she liked being down on the inside,” Marquez said. “I kind of just tried to keep Hydra engaged and keep the favorite down on the fence.

“When we kicked on down the lane, she kind of kicked on with them but Vic's Cool Cat just kind of ran away from us,” he added. “[Determined Honor], she ran great, I thought. I think she may be been in a little over her head but she can definitely win for claiming $10,000.”

Friday marked the first time riding back in Maryland for Marquez since closing day of Laurel's extended summer meet last Sept. 19, before moving his tack to Belmont Park and then Aqueduct with Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. as his agent.

“It feels great. I love being home,” Marquez said. “There's nothing like home. New York was fun and it was a great learning experience, but I'd much rather be home with my family and all the horses I'm familiar with and my jocks' room family.”

Marquez made his professional debut at age 16 running fourth on Up Hill Battle Jan. 1 at Laurel, getting his first win eight days later on his eighth career mount, Sierra Leona. Marquez would go on to rank third at Laurel's winter meet, cut short when live racing was paused in Maryland for 2 ½ months from mid-March to late May amid the coronavirus pandemic, registering hat tricks March 8 and 15. He was also third at Laurel's summer stand, compiling seven multi-win days.

Overall, Marquez's 58 wins were the most of any apprentice in Maryland last year and put him in a tie with Xavier Perez for sixth overall behind Trevor McCarthy's (99). He continues to ride with a five-pound weight allowance.

“I thought I had a great 2020. The COVID really put a stop on things,” Marquez said. “Right before COVID happened, I was on fire. I was winning three a day and then COVID happened. When we came back I was still winning, but I can't really see what would have happened if covid didn't happen. Could I have been leading rider? You never know.”

Marquez spread nine wins over three different meets in New York, going 1-for-12 in 2021 at Aqueduct before making the move back to Maryland, where he will be represented by Marty Leonard. He last rode Jan. 3 at Aqueduct.

The son and grandson of successful jockeys both in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Marquez went down in an Oct. 10 spill at Belmont with what was initially thought to be a fractured right wrist. It turned out to be a sprain, and he rode three races Oct. 18 before taking time off and returning Nov. 14 at Aqueduct.

Marquez ended his rookie season with 71 wins and $1,981,358 in purse earnings from 531 mounts, also winning multiple races at Delaware Park and Penn National. Finalists for Eclipse Award finalists as champion apprentice of 2020 will be announced Saturday and are expected to include current Maryland regular Alexander Crispin (539 mounts, 103 wins, $2.19 million).

“Of course, it'd be a pleasure to be nominated but I'm not really thinking about it right now,” Marquez said. “If I am, then that's great. It was a great year.”

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Weekend Lineup Presented By Laurel Park Winter Carnival: Sunshine And A Derby Prep

It may be a light weekend for graded stakes, but there are no fewer than 23 non-graded stakes from coast-to-coast on Saturday, including the Winter Carnival Day card at Laurel Park, Sunshine Day for Florida-breds at Gulfstream Park and California Cup Day for Cal-breds or California-sired runners at Santa Anita.

Fair Grounds in New Orleans has a 13-race card with six stakes in all, two of them graded, including the G3 Lecomte, a qualifying points race for the G1 Kentucky Derby. Aqueduct offers the 150th running of the Ladies Handicap, and Tampa Bay Downs presents the Pasco and Gasparilla for 3-year-olds and 3-year-old fillies, respectively, that may have designs on official Derby and Kentucky Derby points races down the road at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.

The action at Laurel gets under way at 12:25 p.m. (all times Eastern) with a nine-race card featuring six consecutive stakes beginning with the Geisha (Race 3, 1:23 p.m.) for older fillies and mares going one mile. The stakes finale at Laurel is the inaugural running of the Spectacular Bid for 3-year-olds going seven furlongs, where a field of nine will go postward.

Winter Carnival Day entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/RaceCardIndexLRL011621USA-EQB.html

Gulfstream Park's 12-race program starts at 11:45 a.m. ET, with the Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf Stakes kicking off the stakes action in the eighth race at 3:15 p.m. The stakes that follow consecutively are the Sunshine Classic, Sunshine Sprint and Sunshine Turf.

Sunshine Day entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/GP011621USA-EQB.html

California Cup Day has 10 races including five stakes for state-bred runners. First post is noon locally (3 p.m. ET) and the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf gets the stakes going in the day's fourth race at 4:30 p.m. ET. Field sizes throughout the day are large, with 105 horses entered in the 10 races.

Cal Cup Day entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/RaceCardIndexSA011621USA-EQB.html

Here's a quick look at the graded stakes

Saturday, Jan. 16

5:23 p.m. ET – $125,000 Louisiana Stakes at Fair Grounds

Wells Bayou, the G2 Louisiana Derby winner in 2020 in front-running fashion, makes his first start in the G3 Louisiana Stakes since finishing a well-beaten fifth in a division of the G1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn last May 2. Will he be ready to fire his best off the layoff? Blackberry Wine figures to be breathing down the neck of Wells Bayou and comes off a sharp score in allowance company at Fair Grounds Dec. 13, earning a 98 Beyer Speed Figure in the process. Silver Prospector will be running late in this 1 1/16-mile main track race.

https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/FG011621USA10-EQB.html

6:49 p.m. ET – $200,000 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds

Trainer Michael Stidham appears to have a strong one-two punch in this G3 Kentucky Derby points race (note that none of the 11 starters will be treated with race-day Lasix in accordance with the eligibility rules for Derby points). Proxy has won two straight at Fair Grounds for Stidham, and this Tapit colt was produced from Panty Raid, winner of the G1 American Oaks on turf and the G1 Spinster on dirt. His other Lecomte runner is Manor House, an upstart gelding who won his debut at Laurel in December by 12 1/4 lengths. Both showed speed and there are several others in the lineup who could make things very competitive on the front end. That could set things up for the stretch-running colt Midnight Bourbon from the Steve Asmussen barn.

https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/FG011621USA13-EQB.html

Sunday, Jan. 17

6:30 p.m. ET – $100,000 Astra Stakes at Santa Anita

Racing fans will get a glimpse of Santa Anita's famous hillside turf course as the nine fillies and mares in the 1 1/2-mile Astra Stakes begin their journey on that course, cross over the main track, then travel once around the turf oval. Quick, the 5-2 morning line favorite trained by John Sadler, has just one victory from eight starts since being imported from England. Second choice Altea, a French-bred formerly trained by Chad Brown but switched to Michael McCarthy prior to her last start in the Dec. 27 Robert J. Frankel (G3), is 1-for-19 in the U.S. since importation from France. Neither inspires great confidence. Avenue de France does like to win, but two of her three career victories from eight starts were in France.  She comes off an allowance win for Leonard Powell and might be the “now” horse.

https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/SA011721USA7-EQB.html

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Hello Beautiful Kicks Off 2021 Campaign In Laurel Park’s What A Summer

With an eye on the future and a nod to her successful past, Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables and Magic City Stables' multiple stakes winner Hello Beautiful will open her 4-year-old season in Saturday's $100,000 What a Summer at Laurel Park.

The 35th running of the What a Summer for fillies and mares 4 and older and 25th renewal of the $100,000 Fire Plug for 4-year-olds and up, both sprinting six furlongs, are among six stakes worth $550,000 in purses on a Winter Carnival program that kicks off Maryland's 2021 stakes calendar.

Post time for the first of nine races is 12:25 p.m.

Hello Beautiful, by Golden Lad, won back-to-back stakes to cap both her 2 and 3-year-old seasons, taking the Maryland Million Lassie and Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship in 2019 and last year's Maryland Million Distaff and Safely Kept.

Though she will be making her earliest season debut, not having started previously before May, Hello Beautiful enters the What a Summer not having run since the Nov. 28 Safely Kept, a seven-furlong sprint where she drew off to win by three lengths.

“She's doing really well. We spaced her races out a little bit more this time,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “It's exciting. We're looking forward to it. If she keeps doing the way she's done over the course of the last few months, I feel very good about everything.

“With horses, you just go day to day,” she added. “She's in that first stall, and it's just fun to walk in the barn and see her face every day.”

Hello Beautiful won three of her last four races at 2, the only defeat in that stretch coming by a neck on the grass to subsequent two-time turf stakes winner American Giant, and lost Maryland-bred champion honors to 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) winner Sharing.

A planned break combined with a pause in live racing amid the coronavirus pandemic to push Hello Beautiful's 2020 debut to June, a failed turf try off a six-month layoff. She went back into stakes company after a runaway allowance win just 19 days later, but class and circumstance were too much to overcome in off-the-board finishes in the Audubon Oaks and Prioress (G2).

Hello Beautiful resoundingly returned to form to win the Distaff by 11 ¼ lengths, her first time reunited with regular rider Sheldon Russell in four months since breaking his wrist last July. They teamed up again in the Safely Kept and will break together from Post 3 in a field of nine.

Brittany Russell said the connections are hoping to use the What a Summer as a springboard to the $250,000 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) Feb. 13 at Laurel, a seven-furlong sprint for older females entering its 69th year. Hello Beautiful is a perfect 6-0 over Laurel's main track.

“The goal, obviously, is the Fritchie, so we were trying to figure out the best way to get there and it was kind of just going to be about what she was telling us in the morning,” Russell said. “She's begging to run right now. So, that's why we're going for this and, hopefully, it serves as a good setup for the Fritchie.”

Malibu Mischief, based in New York with owner-trainer Rudy Rodriguez, lost for the first time in seven races when third by less than three lengths to Dontletsweetfoolya in the six-furlong Willa On the Move Dec. 26, her second career stakes attempt. Four of the wins during her streak, the last two at Laurel, came after being claimed for $12,500 last summer.

Trainer Jonathan Thomas will ship in the pair of Escapade and Bridlewood Cat for the What a Summer. Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Escapade, who has raced primarily on grass and synthetic surfaces, was beaten a head when second to Jean Elizabeth, a winner of 10 stakes including two Grade 3s, in an off-the-turf edition of 2019 Abundantia at Gulfstream Park

Bridlewood Farm's Bridlewood Cat, by Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Street Sense, returned off a layoff to be fifth in the Garland of Roses Dec. 6 at Aqueduct. She was fourth, beaten only a half-length, in the 2020 Correction last March.

Mike Trombetta-trained stablemates Bella Aurora and New York Groove look to return to their stakes-winning form following a winless 2020. Country Life Farm's Bella Aurora won the 2019 Gin Talking on the dirt at Laurel while Commonwealth New Era Racing's New York Groove took the 2019 Presque Isle Debutante on the synthetic.

Stakes-placed Club Car, fourth last out in the Willa On the Move; Cause I'm Edgy and Tarawa round out the field.

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Lynch Hoping There Is A Wendell Fong Laurel Park Stakes Win In Her Future

Still seeking her first career win as a trainer, Maryland's own Natalia Lynch couldn't imagine a better horse getting it done in a better place than Gold Square's Wendell Fong in Saturday's $100,000 Fire Plug at Laurel Park in Maryland.

Lynch, 26, has a long association with Wendell Fong going back to when she was working as an assistant to trainer Jeremiah Englehart, overseeing his Laurel string. Lynch helped prepare the now 5-year-old son of Flat Out for his debut, which he won in the final month of 2018, as well as his lone stakes victory in the 2019 Gold Fever at Belmont Park.

After getting a class break in his last two starts, Wendell Fong returns to stakes company looking to reward Lynch's devotion and dedication. Lynch is winless with four seconds from 16 starters since going out on her own last summer; Wendell Fong will be No. 17.

“He got sent to me before his first start and he just kind of became the barn favorite real quick. He's got a real cool personality. He's just one of those special horses,” Lynch said. “I don't think there could be a more fitting horse for me to get my first win.”

Lynch began galloping horses while at Walter Johnson High School in Montgomery County and continued while pursuing a nursing degree, first at Towson University and then at Shepherd University in West Virginia.

She worked for trainers Graham Motion at Fair Hill and Brendan Walsh in Florida, eventually hooking on as the top exercise rider and assistant for Englehart's Laurel string, overseeing 29 horses during the winter. The daughter of a horse dentist, she also worked for trainers Brittany Russell and Phil Schoenthal in Maryland and Jim Bond in New York.

“Just to see the horse win would be more amazing to me than anything else,” Lynch said. “For me it's cool because I came from Laurel and it's kind of like full circle to see my name back there as a trainer. It means a lot.

“I love it. I feel like it's always kind of what I've worked for,” she added. “I always put a lot of pressure on myself but when you see your name in the program it's about 10,000 times more pressure than before. But it's been really good and my support system has been awesome. There have been days where if I don't believe in myself, they believe in me. So it's helped.”

Wendell Fong ran in the Woody Stephens (G1), Amsterdam (G2) and Count Fleet (G3) while still with Englehart, finishing behind the likes of Hog Creek Hustle, Shancelot and Whitmore. He made one start for Robertino Diodoro before landing back with Lynch when she went out on her own.

After two off-the-board finishes, Wendell Fong rediscovered his form running second by 1 ½ lengths behind fellow stakes winner Taco Supream in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance Dec. 3 at Laurel, where he has a 2-1-0 record in four tries.

“We were all very, very happy with that. It was really good to see him come and get his confidence back and he came out of that race very well. He seems a little bit more like the old horse he used to be,” Lynch said.

“I think that's kind of what makes him special. I think he went under the radar for a little bit,” she added. “You look at the company he was running against. He was running against Mind Control and Whitmore and definitely never really hit an easy field. Even though he didn't win, he was still running great races.”

Sheldon Russell will ride Wendell Fong from Post 1 in a field of seven.

To achieve Lynch's breakthrough win, Wendell Fong will have to beat a solid collection of sprinters led by Hillside Equestrian Meadows' Laki, nose winner of the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course, his sixth career stakes win. Three of his others have come at Laurel, where he was second in the Frank Y. Whiteley and fourth in the Dave's Friend to cap 2020.

Silvino Ramirez's Share the Ride, last out winner of the six-furlong Fall Highweight (G3) Nov. 29 at Aqueduct. The 6-year-old gelding won the Mr. Prospector last summer at Monmouth Park, a race where Wendell Fong ran fourth, and was beaten a head when second to Majestic Dunhill in the Bold Ruler (G3) in October.

Penguin Power, a multiple stakes winner at Charles Town with 13 career victories who ran third by two lengths in the Dave's Friend; upset Maryland Million Sprint winner Karan's Notion; Lebda, winner of Laurel's Miracle Wood and Private Terms last winter; and New York-bred stakes winner Arthur's Hope complete the field.

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