Five Stakes Winners Top $100,000 Sensible Lady Turf Dash
Saturday’s Card Includes $100,000 Polynesian on Main Track
LAUREL, MD – Italian Group 3 winner Atomic Blonde, four times graded-stakes placed in North America, will get some class relief as she shortens up in attempt to regain her winning form in Saturday’s $100,000 All Along at Laurel Park.
The 53rd running of the 1 1/8-mile All Along scheduled for the Kelso turf course is the first of three $100,000 stakes on an 11-race program, followed by the six-furlong Sensible Lady Turf Dash, also for fillies and mares 3 and up, and the one-mile Polynesian for horses 3 and older.
First race post time is 12:25 p.m.
Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Winters Equine and trainer Christophe Clement, who purchased the 5-year-old mare for $316,225 in December 2022 in France, Atomic Blonde comes into the All Along having run six straight races at 1 ¼ miles or longer. In her most recent she was a non-threatening fifth to McKulick in the 1 ½-mile Glens Falls (G2) Aug. 1 at Saratoga.
Prior to that run, Atomic Blonde was third behind another Grade 1-winning millionaire, War Like Goddess, in the 1 3/8-mile Robert G. Dick Memorial (G3) July 7 at Delaware Park, after having rallied for a half-length triumph in Churchill Downs’ May 25 Keertana for her lone win in 12 North American starts.
“I’m excited to see her. It looks like she’s going to be competitive in that spot,” West Point executive vice president Tom Bellhouse said. “It’s a good spot for her. She didn’t run her race last time up in Saratoga and I expect that she’ll run a lot better this time and show kind of the form that she showed in Kentucky.”
Jockey Vincent Cheminaud will be aboard for the first time in the All Along from Post 2 in a field of eight that includes multiple stakes winner Malibu Beauty, entered for main track only. Atomic Blonde has been third or better in seven of 11 starts since leaving Europe, where she won the Premio Verziere Memorial Aldo Cirla Tr Arqana (G3) in October 2022 at Milan.
In 2023 Atomic Blonde ran third in the Orchid (G3), Sheepshead Bay (G2) and Canadian (G2) and was second in the April 26 Bewitch (G2) at Keeneland. She has two seconds and a third in three career tries at 1 1/8 miles, including a runner-up finish behind multiple graded-stakes winner Sparkle Blue in Laurel’s Big Dreyfus last summer.
“We’re hoping that she finds the form that she had going into that last race. We expected a much bigger effort out of her last time so that was a little bit of a disappointment,” Bellhouse said. “But, on her good days, as you saw in Kentucky and down at Gulfstream a year ago, she can run with any of them.”
Trainer Graham Motion will send out the pair of No Show Sammy Jo and For Flying. Bridlewood Farm and Madaket Stables’ 4-year-old No Show Sammy Jo will be making just her fifth start and first in stakes company riding a three-race win streak dating back to last June, while Newstead Stables’ For Flying, also 4, won the 2023 Barao de Piracicaba (G1) in her native Brazil and each of her two starts since coming to the U.S. this year.
Maryland homebred Cut From Class, second to Sparkle Blue in the July 21 Big Dreyfus; She’s Dancing, Circle Home and stakes-placed Blood Orange are also entered.
The All Along is named for the French-bred filly that won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Rothmans International, Turf Classic and Laurel’s Washington D.C. International in the span of 41 days in 1983 en route to becoming the first foreign-based horse to be voted U.S. Horse of the Year. A winner of nine races and more than $3 million in purses from 21 starts, she was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1990.
Five Stakes Winners Top $100,000 Sensible Lady Turf Dash
Stakes winners Love Appeals, All That Magic, Anaita, Loon Cry and L Street Lady head an overflow field of 13 entered for the $100,000 Sensible Lady Turf Dash scheduled for six furlongs on the Fort Marcy turf course.
Both Love Appeals and Loon Cry are trained by New York-based Christophe Clement. Moyglare Stud Farm homebred Love Appeals has won two straight including the five-furlong Incredible Revenge Aug. 11 at Monmouth Park, while Waterville Lake Stables’ homebred Loon Cry also sports back-to-back victories capped by the six-furlong Sweet Briar Too Aug. 3 at Woodbine.
Pewter Stable and Spedale Family Racing’s All That Magic won the Incredible Revenge in 2023 and finished fourth, beaten 2 ¼ lengths, in her title defense. Dunham Thoroughbreds’ Indiana-bred Anaita has been third or better in 22 of 29 starts, 10 of them wins, including the five-furlong Lebanon Valley over a yielding Penn National turf Aug. 30.
Madaket Stables is also represented by L Street Lady, winner of the six-furlong Xtra Heat last winter on Laurel’s main track that debuted with a third to Alla Breve in October 2022 on the Laurel grass. Each of her last three starts were rained off the turf, including the 2023 Coronation Cup at Saratoga, where she ran third.
“We’ve been trying to get this filly on the grass for some time,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “She’s a big heavy filly so we’ve kind of run her fit. She’s been up in New York, so it’ll be nice to keep her home. I’m excited to try her on the grass. It’s a little further. She’s just not quick enough for that 5 ½ but I think if she can get her feet under her and if the race can set up right for her, I think she’ll be running at the end.”
Four-time stakes-placed Blame Day; Queen of the Mud, second in successive stakes on grass and all-weather surfaces; Ms. Bucchero, runner-up in Laurel’s July 28 Alma North yet to run on turf; Shoshanah, second to Love Appeals in the Incredible Revenge; and Hay Stack round out the main body of the field.
On the also-eligible list are Alla Breve, winner of Laurel’s six-furlong Jameela on turf July 14, Carolina Hideaway and Isabel Alexandra.
Turf sprinter Sensible Lady took consecutive runnings of Pimlico’s The Very One in 2012 and 2013, two of her seven wins in 14 starts at 3 and 4. The Street Sense filly was trained by Tim Salzman for Three Lyons Racing, who purchased her for $9,500 as a 2-year-old at Ocala’s April sale. She went on to earn $436,640 from 22 starts. From May 2012 to June 2013, the filly won six stakes while racing at Pimlico, Colonial Downs, Penn National and Saratoga and placed in three others during the 10-race streak.