Fall Meet Resumes with Eight Race Card Starting at 12:25 P.M.
Nominations for Thanksgiving Weekend Stakes Due Friday, Saturday
LAUREL, MD – Laurel Park’s fall meet resumes Thursday with an eight-race program featuring a pair of allowances for Maryland-bred/sired horses, one each on the turf and dirt, and a total of four races scheduled for the grass.
Post time is 12:25 p.m.
Thursday’s opener is a 5 ½-furlong claiming sprint scheduled for the All Along turf course that drew seven 3-year-olds and up including New York shippers Volkert and 8-5 program favorite Ranger Fox, a $310,000 son of 2016 Florida Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist racing both as a gelding and for a tag ($40,000) for the first time in his first start since August 2022.
The first allowance, for 3-year-olds and up sprinting seven furlongs on the main track, comes in Race 6. A dozen horses were entered including three-time stakes-placed Heldish; Disputed Claim, riding a three-race win streak, all for different trainers, the most recent coming in the Maryland Million Starter Handicap Oct. 14; and Brittany Russell-trained stablemates Order Ofthe Kettle, with a win and three seconds from four starts, and Frightland, cutting back off a 1 1/16-mile allowance win Sept. 2 at Colonial Downs.
Race 7 is a 5 ½-furlong allowance for 3year-olds and up scheduled for the Dahlia turf course that attracted a field of nine including Freeze the Fire for main track only. Since graduating in a June 9 waiver maiden claimer at Laurel, Fun Notion has been second, third or fourth in five straight starts, never beaten by more than a length, including losses by a neck or less in each of his last three. Tenax ran seventh behind Witty in the Maryland Million Turf Sprint first off the claim for trainer Andres Garlbay and returned to be third by a half-length in a similar spot Oct. 28.
There will be carryovers of $2,139 in the $1 Jackpot Super High Five (Race 6) and $883.72 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 3-8).
Jevian Toledo had three multi-win days last weekend, including a hat trick Nov. 4, to move him past Jeiron Barbosa atop the rider standings, 26-25. Jaime Rodriguez, leading all Maryland jockeys in wins this year, is next with 17.
Brittany Russell won five races last weekend, with doubles Nov. 2 and 4, and moved into a tie with Jamie Ness for leading trainer, 17-17. In out of town action she won races at Charles Town and Delaware Park and on Nov. 5 ran third with Laurel graduate Perfectly Wicked in the Tempted at Aqueduct and fourth with Laurel’s All Along winner Full Count Felicia in the $200,000 Goldikova (G2) at Santa Anita.
Stakes action returns to Laurel Park Saturday with the $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/16 miles, $100,000 James F. Lewis III for 2-year-olds and $100,000 Smart Halo for 2-year-old fillies, both sprinting six furlongs.
Nominations close Friday for a pair of $75,000 Maryland-bred/sired stakes to be run Friday, Nov. 24 – the six-furlong Politely for fillies and mares 3 and older and seven-furlong Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial for 3-year-olds and up.
Nominations close Saturday for three $100,000 stakes to be run Saturday, Nov. 25 – the 1 1/8-mile Richard W. Small for 3-year-olds and up, seven-furlong City of Laurel for 3-year-olds and seven-furlong Safely Kept for 3-year-old fillies.
For questions or to make a nomination contact stakes coordinator Eleanor Albert at Eleanor.Albert@marylandracing.com or 1-800-638-1859.