Tag: Racing

Stakes-winning stablemates Candy Light and Sparkle Blue, each making their third start of the year, seek to break through with the first win of their 4-year-old season in Saturday's $100,000 Big Dreyfus at Laurel Park.

The fourth running of the Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and older is the first of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race program, followed by the Prince George's County for 3-year-olds and up, also scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the Exceller turf course, and Caesar's Wish for fillies and mares 3 and up going one mile on the main track.

Post time is 12:25 p.m.

Fortune Racing's Candy Light, by Candy Ride, made her season debut in a one-mile optional claiming allowance May 21 at Churchill Downs and ran fifth by 2 ¼ lengths in a race where each of the top three finishers came back to win stakes in their subsequent start, including Henrietta Topham in the Mint Julep (G3).

Stretched out to 1 1/16 miles next out in a similar spot June 15 at Ellis Park, Candy Light came with a wide run to be second as the favorite, beaten 1 ¼ lengths. Both races came after concluding her sophomore season winning the Tropical Park Oaks in December, rained off the grass to Gulfstream Park's all-weather Tapeta surface.

“I was encouraged by the race at Ellis,” trainer Graham Motion said. “I thought in her first race she broke awkwardly and that hurt her chances, and probably she needed the race. I thought her second race back was very good and I'm hoping that sets her up for a stakes performance.”

Candy Light was second by a head in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight in October 2021 on the Laurel turf in her career debut. She graduated going a mile over Laurel's main track last February then ran second in the Beyond the Wire and 10th in the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) before being returned to the grass where she has a win, three seconds and a third in eight tries.

“I think she handles all of the surfaces, but I do think she handles grass the best,” Motion said. “We did give her a freshening after she won the stake in Florida, not that she had to have it for any specific reason just that we thought she needed a little break. She's come back well. She's going to have to step up again. It's not an easy spot, but I think after her last two races she will be competitive. It's a good distance for her.”

Feargal Lynch rides Candy Light from Post 2 in a field of eight.

Catherine Parke and Augustin Stable's Sparkle Blue will break alongside Candy Light from Post 3 with Jorge Ruiz aboard. Out of the Smart Strike mare Silk n' Sapphire, Sparkle Blue is a half to graded-stakes winners Colonial Flag and Shared Account, the latter a millionaire trained by Motion to victory in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) that subsequently produced 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) winner Sharing.

In her two races this year Sparkle Blue was sixth by 4 ¼ lengths in the 1 1/8-mile Modesty (G3) May 5 and third, beaten 3 ½ lengths, in the 1 ½-mile Keertana May 27, both at Churchill. The Big Dreyfus will be her eighth consecutive stakes start, half of them in graded company.

“I'm not exactly sure what distance she wants to go. I thought she handled a mile and a half last time,” Motion said. “The first race I ran her at Churchill came up a very competitive race. This should give her a little bit of class relief coming out of the graded races. She's been very consistent. She's a good competitor and it's a family we've had a lot of luck with, obviously.”

Fourth behind Consumer Spending in the 2021 Selima at Laurel in her second career start, Sparkle Blue won the Christiana last July at Delaware Park to open her sophomore season, ran second in the Virginia Oaks, won the 1 1/16-mile Valley View (G3) and Keeneland and was third by less than a length in Santa Anita's American Oaks (G1) before getting the winter off.

“She was very competitive, and I think she just kept improving every time we ran her last year,” Motion said. “She's been running pretty much in graded races, so this is a little bit of class relief for her and we'll see how she handles it. I like the distance for her.”

Trainer Arnaud Delacour won the inaugural 2019 Big Dreyfus with I'm So Fancy and he returns this year with Adelphia Racing Club, Cutair Racing and Dark Horse Racing Stable's Community Adjusted. Previously trained by Christophe Clement, the 5-year-old mare made her season debut a winning one June 3 at historic Pimlico Race Course, drawing off to win a second-level optional claiming allowance by 2 ¼ lengths going 1 1/16 miles.

“That was a perfect race. She was able to save ground and come with a good run at the end. I was very happy with that, and she came back well,” Delacour said. “She's doing really well. I really like the way she's training. Of course, we are stepping up a little bit but I think she deserves a shot.”

Community Adjusted was fourth or better in eight of 11 starts for Clement with two wins, one second and one third. The Big Dreyfus will mark her stakes debut and she retains the services of jockey Victor Carrasco, aboard last out.

“I'm very happy about that. He likes the filly so we're very excited to run,” Delacour said. “She's a lovely, good-looking mare. She's a really big, strong filly with a good pedigree so it only makes sense to try to get some black type now. It's a tougher race, but hopefully she can step up and be competitive.”

Clement will be represented in the Big Dreyfus by Michaela Faust, West Point Thoroughbreds and Winters Equine's Atomic Blonde, a German-bred that the trainer picked out of the Arqana Breeding Stock sale last December in France for $316,225. She won a Group 3 going 1 ¼ miles on the grass in Milan and placed in two other European group stakes before coming arriving in the U.S.

Atomic Blonde has placed in each of her three North American starts, taking a lead into the stretch before settling for third behind stablemate Amazing Grace – who cost nearly $900,000 at the same French sale – and Personal Best in debut in the 1 ½-mile Orchid (G3) April 1 at Gulfstream Park. She followed up running third to Higher Truth and Virginia Joy in the 1 3/8-mile Sheepshead Bay (G2) May 5 and second, beaten two lengths, by Skims in a third-level optional claiming allowance June 16, both at Belmont Park.

“She's just a beautiful filly. So far, she's been ultra consistent,” West Point executive vice president Tom Bellhouse said. “A little unlucky just on race setups, but we're excited. I think we're in a good spot in the race down at Laurel and I think we'll be a contender.”

Jaime Rodriguez, who leads Laurel's ongoing summer meet standings with 16 wins, will ride Atomic Blonde from Post 6.

“We were excited to get him on her,” Bellhouse said. “This is the time of year where it's tough racing everywhere and I think she definitely fits and will gave a great account of herself.

“She's been very versatile,” he added. “Obviously, the Orchid was a huge test off the layoff. Jose Ortiz rode her that day and he made a real aggressive move on the turn and tried to kick on and win it, and we just got run down a little late. The fillies that she's been running against are all top-notch fillies. We feel really good about our chances.”

NRS Stable, James Chambers and Avalon Farm's Coconut Cake wheels back in the Big Dreyfus two weeks following her come-from-behind three-quarter-length victory in the six-furlong Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired horses July 1 over a Laurel turf rated good. Fourth, beaten two lengths, in last year's Big Dreyfus, the 6-year-old Bandbox mare was twice stakes-placed on both turf and dirt before breaking through in the 1 1/8-mile Maryland Million Ladies last October.

William Pape's homebred Deciding Vote was second at odds of 11-1 in the Big Dreyfus after winning Laurel's Dahlia and running fourth in Parx's Neshaminy to open 2022. The overall Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series champion last year is again making her third start off the layoff in the Big Dreyfus, having run fourth in the Dahlia and most recently second in the PTHA President's Cup June 18 at Parx.

Also entered are Lugamo Racing Stable's Lady Puchi, runner-up in the 2022 Searching at Laurel racing first time for trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon; and Super C Racing's Cupid's Strike, a two-time winner that was fifth in last year's off-the-turf Searching.

The post Graham Motion Enters Formidable Pair In Laurel’s Big Dreyfus appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Mark Grier's Grade 3 winner Eons, beaten favorite in each of his last two races, will attempt to regain his winning form while defending his title in Saturday's $100,000 Prince George's County at Laurel Park.

The fourth running of the Prince George's County for 3-year-olds and up is the second of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race program, preceded by the Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and older, also scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the Exceller turf course, and Caesar's Wish for fillies and mares 3 and up going one mile on the main track.

Post time is 12:25 p.m.

This will be the third straight year in the Prince George's County for Eons, based with Arnaud Delacour at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. The 7-year-old son of Giant's Causeway was third, beaten two lengths by multiple graded-stakes winner Pixelate, in 2021 and finished second by a nose last year but was promoted to the win following the disqualification of first-place finisher English Tavern for interference.

Eons opened this year running a troubled seventh in an open 1 1/16-mile allowance in April at Keeneland. His two subsequent starts have both come in optional claimers at Laurel, finishing second by 1 ½ lengths to Sky's Not Falling going one mile May 6 and third, 4 ½ lengths behind stablemate Doctor Davis June 17, also at 1 1/16 miles.

“A lot of it depends on the setup for Eons. The last time there was not a strong pace, and he was kind of behind. He was coming. He ran a good race; he was just coming a little too late,” Delacour said. “I hope the added distance helps and hopefully it will be kind of a softer turf. Not that he likes it soft, but the last time it was really firm and speed-favoring and it was hard to make up ground. Hopefully the combination of both can help him to be very competitive. On his best days, he fits with that bunch.”

Eons has a win, a second and a third in three lifetime tries over the Laurel turf. His biggest victory came in the 2019 Kent (G3) at Delaware Park to cap a career-high four-race win streak. Other stakes wins have come in the 2019 Stanton, also at Delaware, 2021 Buckland at Colonial Downs and 2022 Bensalem at Parx, the latter clinching the 3-year-old and up long turf division title in the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series.

Overall, Eons owns seven wins and nearly $550,000 in purse earnings from 27 starts. Victor Carrasco is named to ride from Post 5 in a field of eight.

“He's always the kind of horse where you don't really know what to expect going into a race, because everything depends on the setup,” Delacour said. “He's just a little bit one-paced so he needs a lot of pace to run after. We'll see if we can get that.”

Fellow Fair Hill trainer Graham Motion entered the pair of Royal Patronage and Pao Alto. Highclere Thoroughbred Racing's 4-year-old Royal Patronage was a two-time group-stakes winner in England before coming to the U.S. last spring, finishing fifth by less than two lengths in the 1 ¼-mile Belmont Derby (G1) in his North American debut.

Moved to Motion following the race, Royal Patronage finished off the board in the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1) and Virginia Derby (G3) before getting the rest of the year off. He returned with a determined neck triumph in an open allowance April 20 at Keeneland and most recently ran fifth by three lengths in the Arlington (G3) June 3 at Churchill Downs, both races contested at 1 1/16 miles.

“I thought when he won the first time out this year, he did it the right way. He did it how we'd hope he would do it,” Motion said. “I was a little disappointed with his last race. I thought he ran huge at Keeneland. We kind of put it down to the ground being very firm at Churchill on that new turf course, so I'm hoping some of the rain this week might help us a little bit. But he's done well since the race.”

Feargal Lynch rides Royal Patronage from Post 2.

“I think the mile and an eighth is a good trip for him,” Motion said. “He might even appreciate a little further.”

Wertheimer & Frere's Pao Alto drew outermost Post 8 under Jorge Ruiz for the Prince George's County. Bred in France like his stablemate, the 6-year-old gelding won group stakes in Europe and Qatar but makes his first start in 5 ½ months still seeking his first North American victory.

“He's perhaps been a little bit disappointing in the afternoon because he trains like a nice horse,” Motion said. “I'm hoping that the freshening has done him good. He had been running pretty consistently when he came to me last year in the fall.”

Pao Alto's stateside debut came last September at historic Pimlico Race Course, when he ran second by 1 ½ lengths in the Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G1). Two starts later he was third in the one-mile Artie Schiller over a yielding Aqueduct course and he raced twice last winter at Gulfstream Park, finishing seventh in the 1 1/8-mile Fort Lauderdale (G2) and eighth in the 1 ½-mile W. L. McKnight (G3), the latter Jan. 28.

“He ended up being a little disappointing in Florida so we decided it was a good time to give him a break. He spent a month or two in Ocala and then joined us this spring, and he has done well since. He hasn't really missed a beat since he came back to us,” Motion said. “It's a competitive race but I certainly think they both stack up.”

Trainer Ken McPeek also has two entrants in Camp Hope and Tiz the Bomb. Walking L Thoroughbreds' Camp Hope, winner of the 2021 Bryan Station at Keeneland, is the 124-pound topweight that was beaten by two lengths when seventh in the 2022 Louisville (G3) and fifth in the July 1 Wise Dan (G2) at Ellis Park, his most recent start.

As a 2-year-old in 2021, Magdalena Racing's Tiz the Bomb won the Bourbon (G2) and Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile and was second by 1 ½ lengths in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1). He won the John Battaglia Memorial and Jeff Ruby (G3) on Turfway Park's all-weather surface to earn a trip to the 2022 Kentucky Derby (G1), where he ran ninth. Tiz the Bomb hasn't finished better than fourth in eight subsequent races, beaten less than a length last time out in the 1 ¼-mile Chorleywood June 17 on the turf at Ellis.

Completing the field are R. Larry Johnson and R.D.M. Racing Stable's Sky's Not Falling, the 2022 Maryland Million Turf Sprint winner that beat Eons two starts back; Runnymoore Racing's Beacon Hill, making his 6-year-old debut for trainer Michael Matz after going winless in seven 2022 starts including second by a neck in an off-the-turf Japan Turf Cup at Laurel and sixth in the Prince George's County; and Upland Flats Racing's stakes-placed Royne, who finished second between Doctor Davis and Eons last out June 17 at Laurel.

The post Eons Needs Right ‘Setup’ In Laurel’s Prince George’s County Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Hillwood Stable's 8-year-old millionaire gelding Cordmaker, whose steady success over seven seasons of racing earned him 11 stakes wins and the adulation of fans throughout the Mid-Atlantic, has been retired.

Winner of the 2022 General George (G3) at Laurel Park, where he is based and remains with trainer Rodney Jenkins, Cordmaker injured an ankle running fourth in an open Laurel allowance July 7, his 39th career start and first in 224 days.

Hillwood's Ellen Charles said Cordmaker is scheduled to have surgery July 17 at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa. and will spend his recovery at David and JoAnn Hayden's Dark Hollow Farm in Upperco, Md., where he has wintered throughout his career.

“They're going to put a screw in so that he'll heal more quickly, but he's retired. That was the message, that it was time to retire him,” the 86-year-old Charles said. “[Veterinarian Dr.] John Sivik said that he's probably been scanned and X-rayed more than any horse on the property at Laurel. It goes to show that as hard as you try, sometimes they do hurt themselves.

“He's 8 and he's got some age on him, and his bones probably aren't as strong as they were as a 4-year-old and 5-year-old or a 6-year-old,” she added. “The message is there, and he's been more than a good horse. He's just been a remarkable horse. He has his fan club and so many people cheer him on. It's too bad he couldn't have won his last race, but he did his best. You have to listen to your horse.”

Cordmaker and his regular rider, Victor Carrasco, led through four furlongs in the 1 1/16-mile allowance under mild pressure from fellow stakes winner Ournationonparade into the far turn before dropping back and being passed by both that rival and eventual winner Zabracadabra. Everett's Song edged Cordmaker by a length for third.

“I guess he put his foot down wrong. He didn't have anything wrong with him when he started,” Jenkins said. “He was going down the backside and it looked like he was making his move, and the next thing I know they were pulling him up. That horse has been sound ever since we've had him. It was just one of those things.”

Cordmaker is retired with 14 wins, four seconds, eight thirds and $1,004,380 in purse earnings, becoming a millionaire with a third-place finish in the 2022 Richard W. Small over Thanksgiving weekend at Laurel, his final start at 7.

Carrasco, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2013, was aboard for 26 of Cordmaker's races with 11 wins, 10 of them in stakes, including last winter's General George. Other Laurel stakes wins came in the 2018 and 2022 Jennings, 2019 and 2021 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial, 2019 Polynesian and 2021 Richard Small and Robert T. Manfuso.

Prior to his breakthrough win in the General George, Cordmaker had run third in back-to-back editions of the historic Pimlico Special (G3), beaten two heads by Tenfold in 2018 and 2 ½ lengths by Harpers First Ride in 2020, when the race was delayed to October amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Bred at Chanceland Farm in Maryland by the late Manfuso and Laurel trainer Katy Voss, Cordmaker is a chestnut son of two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin that Charles purchased for $150,000 at Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale in 2016.

Cordmaker was third by less than a length in his career debut, a five-furlong maiden special weight Aug. 19, 2017 at Laurel with Carrasco up, then graduated by 1 ½ lengths next out going six furlongs four weeks later under Steve 'Cowboy' Hamilton.

The 2018 Jennings was the first stakes victory for Cordmaker, who also won stakes at Delaware Park in the 2019 Governor's Day Handicap and Colonial Downs in the 2021 Victory Gallop. Cordmaker was third or better in 20 of 29 lifetime tries at Laurel, with 11 wins. He was voted Maryland's champion older male in 2019.

“I didn't know what to name him. I also show dogs or have dogs shown for me, and I had a Hungarian sheep dog whose kennel name was Cordmaker. I thought, 'That's really a nice name,'” Charles said. “[He] was the number one dog in the country one year and was just beaten a nose for number one dog the second year. They were both champions in their own area of competition.”

No final plans have been made for where Cordmaker will spend retirement following his time at Dark Hollow.

“We have some ideas but nothing that we're sure of as far as where he's going to go after he gets his [recovery]. He'll lay up until he can be turned out and then we'll decide what will happen next,” Charles said. “He's a very special horse and he has a great personality, and people like him for that. He's quite a character.”

Cordmaker represents the richest horse for both Charles and Jenkins. Together they won the 2014 General George (G2) with Bandbox and Jenkins also won Delaware Park's Leonard Richards (G2), now run as the Barbaro, in 2002. Charles was the breeder of Maryland's 2021 champion older female, Hello Beautiful, a 10-time winner of nearly $600,000 in purses.

“We're sure going to miss him when we walk over there for the big ones,” Jenkins said. “He's been so good to us.”

The post ‘He’s Just Been A Remarkable Horse’: Millionaire Cordmaker Retired appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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