Pickin' Time | Horse Racing Free Tips

Pickin’ Time Wins City of Laurel Stakes At Laurel Park

Roseland Farm Stable's graded-stakes winner Pickin' Time swept to the lead on the outside around the far turn and had plenty left to turn back a bid from He'smyhoneybadger nearing the wire for a 1 ¼-length victory in Saturday's $100,000 City of Laurel at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

The 11th running of the City of Laurel for 3-year-olds was the first of three $100,000 stakes on the program, followed by the Safely Kept for 3-year-old fillies, also sprinting seven furlongs, and 1 1/8-mile Richard W. Small for 3-year-olds and up.

Ridden by Mychel Sanchez for trainer Kelly Breen, Pickin' Time ($12.80) earned his fourth career stakes win and first in open company since the 2020 Grade 3 Nashua last November at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y. Most recently, he won the Monmouth Park's New Jersey Breeders Handicap Aug. 29. The winning time was 1:23.74 over a fast main track.

Breaking outside all but one horse in the field of eight, Pickin' Time was positioned third while in the clear behind multiple stakes-placed pacesetter Awesome Gerry, who led through a quarter-mile in :23.28 pressed by 31-1 long shot Three Two Zone. Three Two Zone assumed the lead after a half in :46.60 with Pickin' Time poised to pounce.

“He gave me a pretty good feeling from the beginning. I think the team did a great job getting him ready for the race,” Sanchez said. “He was pretty easy. He broke really well. I had a good position. I didn't have to use him in the beginning, so I pretty much sav[ed ground] the whole way and when I asked him to go, he really took off.”

Pickin' Time rolled past Three Two Zone once straightened for home and powered through the stretch while He'smyhoneybadger, who beat Pickin' Time in the Oct. 23 Perryville at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., came with a belated run. It was three lengths back to Three Two Zone, who was three-quarters of a length better than Awesome Gerry in fourth.

Stakes winner Everett's Song, the 3-2 favorite, ran fifth to snap his three-race win streak. Riden With Biden, Plamen, and Depository completed the order of finish.

“I guess my horse was ready to go today,” Sanchez said. “It seems like he does better when he gets early position clear. The last couple times he was kind of in between horses [when] he broke a little poorly. I think the post position helped me today.”

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Thanksgiving Weekend Card At Laurel Attract Long List Of Stakes Winners

Graded-stakes winners Laki, Pickin' Time, Informative, and Magic Michael; fellow multiple stakes winners Cordmaker, Hello Beautiful, Kenny Had a Notion, Street Lute, and Whereshetoldmetogo; and undefeated 3-year-old filly Moquist are among 114 horses nominated to five stakes worth $450,000 in purses over Thanksgiving weekend at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

Stakes action begins Friday, Nov. 26 with a pair of $75,000 events for Maryland-bred/sired horses, the seven-furlong Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial for 3-year-olds and six-furlong Politely for fillies and mares 3 and up.

Hillside Equestrian Meadows' 8-year-old Laki, unraced since finishing sixth Sept. 18 in defense of his 2020 Grade 3 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash victory at Laurel but a winner of at least one stakes race five straight years, is one of 25 nominees to the Bender. Madaket Stables, Ten Strike Racing, Michael Kisber, and BTR Racing's Whereshetoldmetogo owns 12 career wins, nine in stakes, is Grade 2 placed and five-for-seven lifetime at Laurel.

Other prominent Bender nominees are Oct. 23 Maryland Million Sprint winner Air Token and multiple stakes winners Double Crown, twice graded-stakes placed Alwaysmining, Galerio, 14-time career winner Penguin Power, and 3-year-old filly Street Lute.

Lucky 7 Stables' Street Lute is among 19 nominees to the Politely. The daughter of Street Magician has won nine of 15 lifetime starts with eight of those victories in stakes. Most recently, she ran third in the Oct. 23 Maryland Million Distaff behind Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables, and Magic City Stables' Hello Beautiful, also nominated.

Purchased by trainer Brittany Russell for just $6,500 in December 2018, 4-year-old Hello Beautiful is 10-for-18 in her career and nine-for-13 at Laurel with $582,570 in purse earnings and eight stakes wins, including three in a row. She made history in the Distaff as one of just eight horses with three career Maryland Million victories.

Saturday, Nov. 27 will feature three $100,000 stakes – the City of Laurel for 3-year-olds and Safely Kept for 3-year-old fillies, both sprinting seven furlongs, and the 1 1/8-mile Richard W. Small for 3-year-olds and up.

Roseland Farm Stable's 2020 G3 Nashua winner Pickin' Time is among 25 nominees to the City of Laurel. The Stay Thirsty colt was second behind Jackie's Warrior in the G2 Gallant Bob Sept. 25 and most recently fifth to fellow City of Laurel nominee He'smyhoneybadger in the Oct. 23 Perryville at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

Louis Ulman and Neil Glasser's Kenny Had a Notion, a stakes winner on turf and dirt that snapped a seven-race losing streak Nov. 11 at Laurel, is nominated to both the City of Laurel and Bender. Other City of Laurel nominees include stakes winners Beren, Everett's Song, Maythehorsebwithu, Mohs, Officiating, The King Cheek, and Waist Deep, and graded-stakes placed Momos and Riden With Biden.

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Mopo Racing's Moquist tops 22 horses nominated to the Safely Kept. The daughter of G1 Florida Derby and G1 Kentucky Derby winner and 2-year-old male champion Nyquist is 4-0 lifetime, all this year, with the last three of her wins coming at Laurel. A winner by 13 ¼ combined lengths, Moquist will be facing her own age group for the first time in the Safely Kept.

Also nominated are Li'l Tootsie, third last out in the G2 Prioress Sept. 4 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; stakes winners Lovely Ride, Malibu Beauty, Prodigy Doll, and Street Lute; Fraudulent Charge, who has four seconds, three in stakes, from six starts; and Oct. 23 Maryland Million Ladies runner-up Maldives Model.

The Small attracted 23 nominations including Trin-Brook Stables, Inc.'s Informative, winner of the June 12 G3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.; Sept. 25 G3 Greenwood Cup winner Magic Michael; multiple stakes winner Cordmaker, third in the 2019 and 2020 G3 Pimlico Special; 2019 G1 Woodward runner-up Bal Harbour; and 7-year-old gelding Bobby G, who has earned 13 of his 15 career wins at Laurel.

Laurel will host its traditional Thanksgiving Day program Thursday, Nov. 25, featuring the return of the popular family-sized pie giveaway with the purchase of a racing program, while supplies last.

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Kentucky Derby Runner Soup And Sandwich Headlines Saturday’s Perryville Stakes At Keeneland

Live Oak Plantation's Soup and Sandwich, unraced since the $3 million Kentucky Derby (G1) Presented by Woodford Reserve in May, headlines a field of nine 3-year-olds entered Wednesday for Saturday's 13th running of the Perryville going 7 furlongs on the main track at Keeneland.

The Perryville is scheduled as the seventh race on Saturday's 10-race program with a 4:12 p.m. ET post time. First post Saturday is 1 p.m.

Trained by Mark Casse, Soup and Sandwich won his first two career starts and was second in the Florida Derby (G1) before his run in the Kentucky Derby. Tyler Gaffalione will have the mount Saturday and break from post position one.

Looming as one of the main threats to Soup and Sandwich is Roseland Farm Stable's Pickin' Time.

Trained by Kelly Breen, Pickin' Time has returned to sprinting and enters Saturday's race off a runner-up effort to Jackie's Warrior in the Gallant Bob (G2) at Parx on Sept. 25. Corey Lanerie has the mount and will exit post position five.

The field for the Perryville, with riders and weights from the inside, is:

Soup and Sandwich (Gaffalione, 118 pounds)
Boca Boy (Marcelino Pedroza Jr., 118)
Ram (Rafael Bejarano, 118)
He'smyhoneybadger (Florent Geroux, 118)
Pickin' Time (Lanerie, 120)
Pipeline (John Velazquez, 118)
Irish Unity (Ricardo Santana Jr., 118)
Cool Quest (Julien Leparoux, 118)
Runway Magic (Brian Hernandez Jr., 118)

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Lopez Wins With Amatteroftime, Alta Velocita On New Jersey Thoroughbred Festival Day

It only seemed fitting that a day celebrating New Jersey-bred horses belonged to jockey Paco Lopez, trainer Kelly Breen, and breeder-owner John Bowers.

Lopez, who tied his own Monmouth Park record by riding seven winners on Saturday, captured two of the three stakes races during Sunday's New Jersey Thoroughbred Festival at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., while Breen won the $100,000 New Jersey Breeders' Handicap with Pickin' Time, last year's champion New Jersey-bred 2-year-old.

Pickin' Time, who held off Golden Brown to win by 1¾ lengths in the six-furlong New Jersey Breeders' Handicap for 3-year-olds and up, is owned and was bred by John Bowers.

Bowers was honored during the day as the 2020 New Jersey Breeder of the Year.

“It's great that Pickin' Time and Mr. (John) Bowers would win this race on Jersey-bred day,” said Breen. “He's a top breeder. It's difficult when you have a top 2-year-old and you have to transition to 3. Then at 3, having to run against older horses in a race like this like Golden Brown, who is a top older horse, one of the best Jersey-breds ever.

“We knew we had our work cut out for us. Our horse was training well and doing well. I'm just glad he showed up. We talked a lot about the cut back (to six furlongs from a mile and an eighth in the TVG.com Haskell Invitational in his last start). We sharpened him up with the breezes. We did all I thought we needed him to do to get him ready for a top effort off the shelf. He showed up. They went fast. But he's a fast horse too.”

Ridden by Nik Juarez, Pickin' Time looped three-wide coming out of the final turn while Golden Brown, ridden by Lopez, shot the rail.

“It was for the best that I had to go wide coming out of the final turn,” said Juarez. “The favorite (Golden Brown) was down on the rail so I wanted to get the jump before he got through and make sure I was clear and kick some dirt. We were able to get the jump on him and that made a difference.”

Pickin' Time, making his first start since being elevated to fourth in the Grade 1 Haskell, returned $8.60 to win.

The winning time for the son of Stay Thirsty was 1:09.58, with Dr. Doyle getting third.

The other two stakes races on the 12-race card for state-breds belonged to Lopez.

The track's leading rider guided Amatteroftime to a 4¾-length victory over Prendimi in the $125,000 Charles Hesse III Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth and also captured the $100,000 Eleven North Handicap, doing so with a rousing stretch run that saw Alta Velocita get up to win by a nose over Jersey Jewel.

Amatteroftime, trained by Silvino Ramirez, earned his first stakes win since capturing the 2018 New Jersey Breeders' Handicap. The 6-year-old gelding is now 5-for-13 at Monmouth Park during his career.

Amatteroftime paid $5.40 to win, covering the mile and a sixteenth in 1:44.49. Optic Way finished third, another two lengths back.

Lopez's victory in the six-furlong Eleven North aboard Alta Velocita wasn't nearly as easy, with the filly rallying from eighth, seven lengths back, at the quarter pole, finally catching Jersey Jewel on the wire. The winning time was 1:10.45.

Though Alta Velocita has won four of her last five starts, the Eleven North marked the first stakes victory in her 15-race career.

“At the top of the stretch, I was hoping we'd get fourth because of how far back she was. Maybe fifth and then a long drive home,” said winning trainer Andrew Simoff. “As it got closer my hopes picked up. I still didn't she was going to get there inside the sixteenth pole. She had that late surge and switched to that right lead and took off and that was it.”

Alta Velocita returned $6.20 in the field of 11 fillies and mares, three and up.

“At the five-eighths and then the half-mile pole I was thinking `she is dead last,' ” said Lopez, who is virtually assured of his eighth Monmouth Park riding title. “I let her go very wide and let her do her thing. She was flying. I think she made up 10 lengths in the stretch.”

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