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Mighty Mischief, Street Lute Among Nominees For Four Stakes On Independence Day Card At Pimlico

Four horses from the May 15 Grade 3 Chick Lang Stakes, including impressive winner Mighty Mischief and third-place finisher Hemp, are among 25 3-year-olds nominated to the $100,000 Concern Stakes Sunday, July 4 at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md.

The six-furlong Concern, named for the only Maryland-bred winner of the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic in 1994 and trained by Dickie Small, is among four stakes worth $375,000 in purses scheduled for the Independence Day holiday program.

Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt's homebred Mighty Mischief was making his stakes debut in the G3 Chick Lang Stakes, on the undercard of the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1), following maiden and allowance wins at Oaklawn Park. The bay Into Mischief colt led from start to finish to extend his win streak to three with a 1 ¼-length triumph over multiple stakes-winning stablemate Jaxon Traveler.

Narrow Leaf Farm's Hemp came with a three-wide move to be third in the G3 Chick Lang, 2 ½ lengths behind Jaxon Traveler, following an impressive allowance win in the mud on April 10 at Laurel Park. He ran fourth after breaking a step slow in the five-furlong Ben's Cat Stakes June 13 at Pimlico, a race originally carded for the turf.

Palatial Times, fifth in the G3 Chick Lang, came back to be second by less than a length facing older horses in a six-furlong starter optional claimer June 12 at Pimlico. Shackled Love, winner of the 1 1/16-mile Private Terms Stakes March 13 at Laurel, has not raced since running last of six in the G3 Chick Lang.

Also prominent among Concern nominees are Beren, riding a three-stakes win streak for Parx-based trainer Robert E. 'Butch' Reid Jr.; Good With People, a two-time California-bred stakes winner trained by Peter Miller; 2020 Sapling Stakes winner Waist Deep; Momos, graded-stakes placed on both the turf and dirt last fall as a 2-year-old; stakes-placed Awesome Gerry, Dalton, Doubleoseven, Love My Jimmy, Roderick, Rolling Fork, Singlino, Three Two Zone; and Marvalous Mike, a winner of three straight.

Two stakes are part of the 24-race Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series – the $100,000 Lite the Fuse Stakes for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs and $100,000 Caesar's Wish Stakes for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles, both on the main track.

The Lite the Fuse, honoring the two-time Grade 1 Carter Handicap and Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G2) winner, was last run in 2002 at Laurel. It was most popular among horsemen with 33 nominations led by Yaupon, record-setting winner of the 2020 Chick Lang unraced since the Grade 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen March 27 and also owned by the Heiligbrodts and trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen.

Also nominated were Jan. 30 Grade 3 Toboggan Stakes winner American Power, second to Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire in the June 4 Grade 3 True North Stakes; March 6 Grade 3 Tom Fool Stakes winner Chateau, also runner-up to Firenze Fire in the May 8 Grade 2 Runhappy Stakes; 2019 Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap winner Happy Farm, a two-time claiming winner this year who ran fifth in the G3 Tom Fool; 2020 De Francis winner Laki; 2020 Grade 3 Fred Hooper Stakes winner Phat Man, fifth in the True North; and multiple stakes winner Whereshetoldmetogo.

Among 20 nominees to the Caesar's Wish were multiple stakes winners Miss Leslie, most recently fifth in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes May 14 at Pimlico, Artful Splatter, and Mrs. Orb; Our Super Freak, winner of the 2019 Shine Again Stakes at Laurel who has placed in back-to-back graded-stakes including a second to champion Monomoy Girl in the Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes Feb. 28; Water White, second by a length over Our Super Freak in the May 2 Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes; 2020 Treasure Chest winner Gibberish and Landing Zone, respectively 2-3 in the June 6 Lady's Secret Stakes at Monmouth Park; and Sosua, undefeated in three starts including a May 20 allowance win at Pimlico.

The Caesar's Wish debuted in 1978 at old Bowie Race Course and was also contested at both Pimlico and Laurel before being renamed the Beyond the Wire in 2018.

Stablemates Anna's Bandit, an 11-time stakes winner who ran fifth in the June 13 Shine Again in her season debut, and Street Lute head 24 nominees to the Jameela Stakes, a five-furlong turf sprint for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and up. A 7-year-old Great Notion mare bred, owned, and trained by Jerry Robb, Anna's Bandit is winless in three career tries on grass. Lucky 7 Stables' Street Lute earned her seventh stakes win from 11 starts in the off-the-turf Stormy Blues Stakes, also June 13 at Pimlico.

Epic Idea, winless in two starts this year since her mild upset of the Maryland Million Ladies last fall at Laurel; five-time stakes winner Hello Beautiful, second in three lifetime turf races; Introduced, a three-time turf winner with two stakes wins on dirt; Never Enough Time, twice a stakes winner over the main track; and Wicked Hot, who followed a 12-length maiden score May 28 with a half-length allowance score over older horses June 20, both at Pimlico for trainer Graham Motion, are also nominated.

The Jameela Stakes has had all but four of its first 32 editions at Laurel Park and was last held at Pimlico in 2001.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I Can’t Imagine Doing Anything Else’

Disruption is the name of the racing game in Maryland at the moment, with a massive overhaul of Laurel Park's racing surface forcing trainers to find other accommodations to condition their equine charges. For veteran trainer Jerry Robb, it's been his above average afternoon successes that have kept him from wanting to throw in the towel.

“I had a really good month last month,” he explained. “With only 26 horses, we won 10 races last month, and another six or seven this month.”

Driving back and forth between Timonium and Delaware Park to oversee his split string of horses has been hard on both Robb's mind and his wallet, but at the end of the day, the long-time horseman wouldn't have it any other way.

“I'm probably not ever going to retire,” Robb said, adding: “They'll probably just stick me in the ground one morning at post time!”

With several top-quality horses in the barn, Robb hopes that day remains well in the future. Filling his stalls are the seven-time stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Street Lute, $780,000 earner Anna's Bandit, and the latter's 2-year-old half-sister, first-out winner Bandits Warrior.

“That's what keeps you going, having nice horses in the barn,” said Robb. “There are definitely hard days, especially dealing with trying to find help and all this driving. But, getting back in the winner's circle, there's just nothing like it.”

Street Lute won the June 13 Stormy Blues Stakes at Pimlico, already her seventh stakes win from 11 career starts. Robb selected the daughter of Street Magician for just $10,500 as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling sale, and she's already earned over $190,000 on the track.

“She's Maryland-bred, Delaware-certified, and Virginia-certified,” Robb explained. “Being able to run her in those (restricted stakes) spots has been helpful, though she's won in some open spots too. She'll run at Colonial next.”

Street Lute wins the Stormy Blues Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.

Anna's Bandit ran on the same card, finishing fifth in the Shine Again Stakes in first start since July of 2020. The 7-year-old West Virginia-bred has won a total of 11 stakes races in her career, and even ran third in the G3 Barbara Fritchie Stakes last February.

“She'd been ready to run for two months, but she'll have needed the race,” Robb said. “It's been hard to find a spot for her, but we'll keep her in the Maryland and West Virginia-bred races for a while.”

As a homebred for his wife, Gina, under the banner No Guts No Glory Farm, Anna's Bandit has been a major boon for Robb's stable. She is out of the No Armistice mare One Armed Bandit, a Robb-selected $13,500 yearling whom he trained to earn over $300,000 on the track. In 2019, she won nine of her 11 starts, all but one in a stakes race, to be named the co-winningest horse of the year.

Anna's Bandit's sire, Great Notion, commanded a stud fee of just $3,500 when she was conceived.

Anna's Bandit winning the 2019 Maryland Million Distaff

“We've always dealt with bottom of the barrel horses in terms of prices,” Robb said. “Mostly I've been lucky I guess, there's no real art to it. It doesn't matter how cheap they are, they've got to have the heart and the willpower. You saw that with the Kentucky Derby winner this year.”

The top horse in Robb's training history remains Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Famer Little Bold John, another “bottom-barrel” horse conceived from a $1,500 stud fee out of a mare Robb traded for. The impressive Little Bold John raced 105 times with 38 wins and almost $2 million in earnings before being retired in 1993. His 25 stakes wins were a Maryland-bred record until surpassed by Ben's Cat in 2016.

“It's something I'm extremely proud of, that I've won a stakes race nearly every year since 1980,” Robb said.

Robb saddled his first winner with Hail Aristocrat at Penn National in 1973, and he was named Maryland Trainer of the Year in 1992. Robb registered a career-high 114 wins in 1988 and has reached the $1 million mark in seasonal earnings 14 times, with a high of $2.3 million in 2002. A four-time meet-leading trainer in Maryland, Robb overall has had more than 12,500 starters and $39 million in purses earned

He has won nine career graded-stakes, five of them courtesy of Little Bold John from 1987-89. Other graded winners are He Is Risen, Lightning Paces, Pioneer Boy and Debt Ceiling, his most recent, in the 2013 Bashford Manor (G3).

He also has a strong history of representing horsemen. He served on the Maryland Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association Board of Directors in the late 1970s, and was later involved in the co-founding of the MTHA. In the late 1980s, he implemented the first condition book index that the country had ever seen.

“I got started as a gallop boy for James McGill at Marlboro Racetrack, and eventually I bought a couple horses and he taught me how to train them,” Robb said. “It's just grown from there, and now I can't imagine doing anything else.”

When he achieved his 2,000th training victory last February, Robb explained that the milestone means more than words can express for his small operation.

“It means a lot, because I've always had a small outfit, 20-30 horses,” he said. “We never had the big outfit that gets those kinds of numbers. We had to grind it out, 50 a year. That's what we do and, hopefully, I win 50 more [this] year.”

Trainer Jerry Robb celebrates his 2,000th career victory

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Street Lute Wings To Victory In Stormy Blues

The silks jockey Xavier Perez wore said it all – Lucky 7.

Despite an awkward start while breaking from the outside post, Street Lute won her seventh stakes race when she gamely drove around the field to win Sunday's $100,000 Stormy Blues at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md.

Trained by Jerry Robb and ridden by Xavier Perez, Street Lute covered five furlongs on the main track in :58 for her seventh stakes win and eighth career win in 11 starts.

The 13th running of the Stormy Blues Stakes for 3-year-old fillies capped a 10-race program featuring five stakes worth $475,000 in purses. Both the Stormy Blues and $75,000 Ben's Cat Stakes for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up were moved from the grass to the main track and kept at five furlongs. Horses scratched from the Stormy Blues included two from the barn of Wesley Ward, Wink and Amanzi Yimpilo.

After Street Lute broke awkwardly at the start, Proper Attire, beaten on the turf in the Hilltop Stakes last out, went to the front with Malibu Beauty in pursuit. But as those two entered the turn, Perez began moving Street Lute. Past Beautiful Grace, past Prodigy Doll, Street Lute drove down the center of the stretch gamely passing Malibu Beauty and then Proper Attire for victory number seven.

“To be honest I thought it was kind of over,” said Lucky 7 owner Joey Lloyd. “But when I saw her coming down the final homestretch I knew she has the heart, bigger than this world. My heart was in my throat, but as soon as I saw her coming down the stretch right outside [Proper Attire], I knew she was going to catch her.”

Stormy Blues was one of the top 2-year-old fillies of 1994 whose four wins in six starts that year included the Grade 1 Matron Stakes, Grade 3 Sorority Stakes, and Grade 3 Selima Stakes, the latter at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md. Trained by late Hall of Famer Scotty Schulhofer, she finished third in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

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Six-Time Dirt Stakes Winner Street Lute Tries Turf In Pimlico’s Stormy Blues

Lucky 7 Stables' Street Lute, already a six-time stakes winner on the dirt, is set make her turf debut as part of a field of 13 entered in Sunday's $100,000 Stormy Blues at historic Pimlico Race Course.

The 13th running of the Stormy Blues for 3-year-old fillies and the fourth renewal of the $75,000 Ben's Cat for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up, both sprinting five furlongs, are among four scheduled turf stakes on a 10-race program. They are joined by the $100,000 Prince George's County at 1 1/8 miles for 3-year-olds and up, and $100,000 Searching for females 3 and older at 1 ½ miles.

Rounding out Sunday's stakes action is the $100,000 Shine Again for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting six furlongs on the main track. Part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series, it features undefeated multiple stakes winner Chub Wagon facing off against Anna's Bandit, Hello Beautiful and Dontletsweetfoolya, who have combined to win 29 races, 18 stakes and more than $1.37 million in purse earnings.

First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

Even as his young stable star has piled up wins on the dirt, trainer Jerry Robb has been waiting for a grass opportunity for Street Lute, a chestnut daughter of Street Magician out of the Midnight Lute mare Alottalute bred in Maryland by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman and Dr. Brooke Bowman.

“She's bred for grass top and bottom. Just off her breeding alone, I'd be shocked if she didn't take to it. She's got just a ton of natural ability,” Robb said. “I definitely want to try the grass if we have it, or I can go for the mud if we don't.”

Street Lute won the 5 ½-furlong Small Wonder last fall at Delaware Park over a sloppy track while all her other races have come over fast surfaces including victories in the 2020 Smart Halo, Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship and Gin Talking and 2021 Xtra Heat and Wide Country during a five-race win streak, all at Laurel Park at six or seven furlongs.

Third when stretched out to a mile for the March 13 Beyond the Wire at Laurel, Street Lute exits her first off-the-board finish when sixth following a troubled trip in the six-furlong Miss Preakness (G3) May 14 at Pimlico on the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) undercard, her graded-stakes debut.

Street Lute has had one timed breeze since the Miss Preakness, going three furlongs in 36.20 seconds June 5 at Delaware Park, the fastest of 22 horses. Regular rider Xavier Perez – who earned his 1,000th career win Monday at Delaware on Robb-trained In the Loop – climbs back aboard from Post 10 in a field of 13 that includes main track only entrant Malibu Beauty.

“Her last race she broke horrible, got pinched back and had no shot. Plus, it was a tough spot,” Robb said. “I'm looking for her to bounce right back.”

Trainer Wesley Ward, in England for the upcoming Royal Ascot meet, entered a pair of stakes winners in Wink and Irish-bred Amanzi Yimpilo. Stonestreet Stables' Wink, Group 3-placed in France last fall, was a front-running winner of the five-furlong Melody of Colors on the Gulfstream Park turf March 20. Last time out, the Midshipman filly ran last of nine after dueling for the lead in the May 8 Mamzelle.

Purchased as a yearling for $110,000 at Keeneland in September 2019, Wink debuted last June with a 1 ¼-length maiden special weight triumph at Belmont Park and was immediately stepped up to stakes company, winning the Colleen at Monmouth Park. Both victories came in gate to wire fashion.

From there, Wink and stablemate Campanelle traveled to France, where she ran second by a length in the Prix d'Arenberg (G3) at Longchamp Sept. 3. Two weeks earlier, Campanelle gave Ward his third career win in the Prix Morny (G1) at Deauville.

“She went over there to accompany Campanelle and she ran really, really good. It wasn't really a plan to race there but to bring her there for the other filly. There was a race there and now she's got graded-stakes placing. She led every jump but the last little bit, so she ran a real credible race there,” Ward said. “She's well-traveled, so right after the race we brought her home and gave her some time.”

Victor Carrasco has the call on Wink, who drew outside Post 13.

Susan Moulton, Marc Detampel and CJ Thoroughbreds' Amanzi Yimpilo ran seventh in the Mamzelle to open her 2021 campaign. By No Nay Never, a French Group 1 and American Grade 3 winner also trained by Ward, she won two of three starts at 2 including a head triumph in the 5 ½-furlong Speakeasy last fall at Santa Anita.

“She kind of lost it there on her comeback race day. She kind of got real hot and was worked up a little bit and just was sweating,” Ward said. “We've worked on that a little bit, brought her over a couple times to Churchill to breeze on the grass and she just got completely over that. I think she just had the nervous jitters coming back and I really look for her to run a big race.”

A $300,000 yearling purchase in September 2019, Amanzi Yimpilo breezed four furlongs in 48.80 seconds June 6, the fastest of eight horses, and will get the services of jockey Mychel Sanchez from Post 9.

“We paid dearly for her. She's by a sire that I trained … so I'm responsible for her success and failure. I want to keep moving forward with her. I think she's really going to turn out to be a nice filly. We gave her all time off this winter and she's a good, fresh filly,” Ward said. “I just think that first race was a throwout based on how she was acting that day.”

Beautiful Grace, Catching the Wind, Door Buster and What a Trick all enter the Stormy Blues off wins. Multiple stakes-placed Honey Pants, fifth by three lengths in the one-mile Sweetest Chant (G3) Jan. 30 at Gulfstream, ships in from New York for trainer Christophe Clement, while Kentucky-based Ben Coleman brings in April 10 Cheryl S. White winner Prodigy Doll. Can't Buy Love, Proper Attire and Whiskey and Rye – who finished behind Street Lute in the Gin Talking, Xtra Heat and Wide Country – complete the field.

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