Maryland | Horse Racing Free Tips

Grade 2 Winner Engage Retired To Northview Stallion Station In Maryland

Multiple graded stakes-winning sprinter Engage has been retired to Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, Md., for the 2022 season.

Engage, a son of champion sire Into Mischief, competed at the top level of sprint competition throughout his 19-start career, starting with trainer Chad Brown before being transferred to Steve Asmussen. He won graded stakes at two and four, including Keeneland's Grade 2 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix, a Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” event for the 2019 Breeders' Cup Sprint while defeating a field that included eventual Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Whitmore and Grade 1 winners Lexitonian, Hog Creek Hustle and Promises Fulfilled.

“This horse is pure speed,” said Northview general manager David Wade. “He is the first true sprinter we've retired to Northview in years.”

Engage was one of his sire's top juveniles in 2017 when winning two of three starts, topped by Belmont Park's G3 Futurity in which he drew off by 3 1/2 lengths going six furlongs. He finished first or second during a seven-race streak from two to three – his highlights at three were a win in 1:09 and change in Belmont Park's six-furlong Gold Fever Stakes, and seconds in the Grade 3 Bay Shore at Aqueduct, G2 Woody Stephens, and G3 Amsterdam at Saratoga, the latter to Promises Fulfilled.

Off for nearly a year from three to four, he returned that fall to win Parx's Bensalem Stakes, the Phoenix, then made the trip to California for the Breeders' Cup Sprint where he finished fourth behind stablemate Mitole. He retires with earnings of $802,780 and five wins, five seconds and two thirds in 19 starts.

Engage represents the highly successful pedigree cross of Into Mischief, the top stallion in the U.S. the past three years who now stands for $250,000, with Speightstown mares, which to date has yielded five black-type winners from 14 starters, including Grade 1-winning sprinters Mia Mischief and Mischevious Alex, and Grade 1-placed Make Mischief. His dam, the stakes-placed Nefertiti, is out of Clearly a Queen who was a three-time graded winner of $504,532.

Engage will stand for $5,000 live foal and is now at the farm and available for inspection. He will be showcased with the rest of the high-powered stallion lineup at an open house on Dec. 11 from 11 a.m. till 2:30 p.m.

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Maryland Horsemen, Veterinarians Urged To Use Online Injury Reporting Form

Horsemen and private veterinarians are reminded that the Maryland Racing Commission has an online Injury Reporting Form that should be used to report injuries during track at all Thoroughbred tracks in the state.

“This is important in our effort to track training injuries,” MRC Executive Director Mike Hopkins said. “It's also important to see if there is a pattern of a type of injury and where it occurred on the racetrack.”

The form asks for basic information as well the location on the track where the injury occurred, the type of injury, whether radiographs were taken, and the veterinary diagnosis for the injury.

The reporting of injuries during training was part of a Nov. 10 discussion among horsemen and Maryland Jockey Club officials in relation to keeping the track maintenance abreast of any issues.

The form is available online at this link: https://forms.gle/uZo7bp1Xa23zJYqW6

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Mr Jefferson Gives Trainer Mike Trombetta His 2,000th Career Victory

R. Larry Johnson's homebred 2-year-old colt Mr Jefferson slipped through an opening along the rail in mid-stretch and outran stablemate Bold Leader to give trainer Mike Trombetta his 2,000th career victory in Thursday's featured eighth race at Laurel Park.

Ridden by Mychel Sanchez, Mr Jefferson ($14.20) completed about 1 1/16 miles in 1:45.43 over a fast main track to win the optional claiming allowance for juveniles by 1 ½ lengths. Street Hustle was third with pacesetting 3-5 favorite Mr. Mox fourth.

“It's really, really cool,” Trombetta said. “I didn't expect to be one-two in the race, by any means. I was hoping just to hit the board, honestly, but it was nice to get this kind of result.”

Trombetta, who turned 55 last week, is the second Maryland-based trainer to reach a career milestone at Laurel this fall. Claudio Gonzalez, the state's annual leading trainer since 2017, earned his 1,000th win with He's a Shooter Oct. 14.

A Baltimore native that maintains strings at both Laurel and the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., Trombetta had 1,993 wins heading into the month of October. He earned No. 1,999 with Conclusive Oct. 31 at Laurel and was off the board with his only other starter Thursday, U S Constitution, in Race 5.

“I was hoping it'd happen this year, by the way things were going,” Trombetta joked. “It's all good.”

Mr Jefferson, by Constitution, was making his fourth career start and first with blinkers. He is 2-0 on the dirt, having broken his maiden Aug. 25 at Colonial Downs, and finished off the board in a pair of turf starts.

Perennially one of the top trainers in Maryland who is also a player on the national stage, Trombetta has topped $1 million in purse earnings every year since 2005 and at least $3 million since 2007, with a career bankroll of more than $68.4 million.

Introduced to horses through his father, Trombetta began walking hots as a teenager and steadily worked his way up the ladder to becoming a trainer. His first winner came with Amant De Cour in 1986 at defunct Atlantic City Race Course in New Jersey.

The MTHA Trainer of the Year in 2005, Trombetta burst on the national scene with Sweetnorthernsaint, an ex-claimer turned Grade 2 winner who went off as the Kentucky Derby (G1) favorite in 2006 and ran second to champion Bernardini in the Preakness (G1). Among his local stakes wins were the 2006 Miracle Wood and 2007 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial at Laurel.

Other stakes horses for Trombetta include 2020 Forego (G1) winner Win Win Win, 2019 Highlander (G1) winner Wet Your Whistle, 2012 Nearctic (G1) winner Next Question, 2009 Commonwealth (G3) winner Eternal Star, 2009 Carry Back (G2) winner Not for Silver and Grade 3 winners Weigelia, Control System, Jimanator, Despite the Odds, Street Magician, Souper Escape, Global Access, Independence Hall.

Trombetta won Laurel's 2019 spring stand and shared the 2015 winter meet title with Claudio Gonzalez, to whom he has finished second in annual Maryland wins each of the past two years. He also ranks among the all-time leading trainers in Maryland Million history with eight wins.

On Friday, Trombetta has three horses entered in two of nine races at Laurel as well as a pair of stakes out of town – Biz Biz Buzz in the Atlantic Beach at Belmont Park and Can't Buy Love in the Cellars Shiraz at Gulfstream Park.

“I have a horse in the stake in New York tomorrow we're real excited about. He broke his maiden here,” Trombetta said. “Maybe we can get started with 2,001 tomorrow.”

Notes: Jockey Mychel Sanchez doubled Thursday aboard Askin for a Baskin ($2.40) in Race 3 and Mr Jefferson ($14.20) in Race 8. J.D. Acosta also had two winners, Gentleman Joe ($12.60) in Race 5 and Beneath the Stars ($19.60) in Race 9 … There will be carryovers of $3,940.62 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 and $1,050.94 in the $1 Super Hi-5 for Friday's nine-race card. Post time is 12:25 p.m.

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‘Magician’ Can Cast Winning Spell In Maryland Million Turf

Bell Gable Stable's Somekindofmagician, two months after becoming a stakes winner in his previous trip to Maryland, returns looking to conjure up a similar result in Saturday's $100,000 Maryland Million Turf at Laurel Park.

The Turf for 3-year-olds and up and Ladies for fillies and mares 3 and older, both contested at 1 1/8 miles on the grass, are 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.

Highlighted by the $150,000 Classic for 3-year-olds and up, first race post time is 11:30 a.m.

Trained by Gary Contessa for owners Nick and Delora Beaver, Somekindofmagician capped a three-race win streak with his 1 ¾-length upset of the 1 1/16-mile Find at odds of 9-1 over a yielding turf course Aug. 21 at historic Pimlico Race Course.

It was the sixth career win for the 7-year-old Street Magician gelding, half of those coming in six starts this year since Contessa came out of retirement to take over as private trainer for Delaware Park-based Bell Gable.

“I think, honestly, that he's responding to Gary's regimen. Not all horses do. We have horses that have not quite responded and maybe regressed a little bit, but he's been the one horse that when you walk down the shedrow and Delora will have carrots in her hand, he'll almost run through the webbing,” Nick Beaver said. “He just feels so good. We've had him for about four years now and I've never seen him look so good.”

The Find victory came during a career-best stretch for Somekindofmagician, who will be making his fifth straight appearance in the Turf having run second in 2017 and 2019 for previous trainers Jamie Ness and Mike Trombetta and sixth last year, again with Ness. His win streak ended when he ran third, beaten three lengths, in a 7 ½-furlong optional claiming turf sprint Sept. 30 at Delaware.

“That last race, he had nowhere to go. At Delaware, the stretch is a little bit shorter and he was stuck behind a whole wall of horses. He was flying at the end. If that race would have been a mile he would have won that race. He's ready. We have no excuses. If he doesn't win, he just gets beat by a better horse that day. He's probably the best he's ever been in his life right now,” Beaver said. “He is on top of his game right now. We're excited. We're just waiting for Saturday.”

Somekindofmagician, rated at 9-2 on the morning line, will have Angel Cruz back for the third straight race, breaking from Post 5 in a field of 13 including three also-eligibles.

The 2-1 program favorite is last year's Turf runner-up, Taking Risks Stable's Cannon's Roar, beaten a length last year by 15-1 long shot Pretty Good Year, who returns to defend his title. Cannon's Roar ran fifth in the Find and came back to be third, a half-length behind winner Xy Speed, in the 5 ½-furlong Laurel Dash Oct. 2 as his Million tune-up.

“It's just been hard to get races to fill for him. I was training him to go long and I just couldn't get anything to go, so the sprint came up and we tried to sharpen him up a little bit,” trainer Dale Capuano said. “He ran well, so now I can go from short back to long, which I like to do. Hopefully, he'll run well. He had a terrific work the other day, and he should be ready to go.”

Capuano owns the most wins of any trainer in Maryland Million history with 14, including three last year and the 1999 Turf with Private Slip. Still seeking his first career stakes win, Cannon's Roar will have Charlie Marquez aboard from Post 1.

“He hasn't won one yet. He's been unlucky in a couple of them, but nothing yet. The weather's supposed to be good so the turf should be good and hopefully we get a good trip and we'll see if we can finally get one,” Capuano said. “He has enough speed to get himself in a good position. Hopefully it'll all go well. He should be all right.”

In all, four horses return from last year's Turf including Nick Papagiorgio, who ran third. Also entered are Raven's Delight, Benny Havens, Johng, Trifor Gold, Street Copper and Up Against It with Beltway Bob, Robert's Luxury and Who's Counting on the also-eligible list.

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