Sophomore Copper Tax to Face Older Horses in Richard W. Small
Stakes Winners Simply Stated, Bourbon Bon Bay Top Willa On the Move
LAUREL, MD – Stonehedge’s Grade 3-winning homebred Dean Delivers, whose last trip to Maryland resulted in a popular triumph in the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash, returns looking to restart his win streak in Saturday’s $100,000 Dave’s Friend at Laurel Park.
The 21st running of the six-furlong Dave’s Friend is the second of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race program along with the 1 1/8-mile Richard W. Small, also for 3-year-olds and up, and 6 ½-furlong Willa On the Move for fillies and mares 3 and older.
First race post time is 12:25 p.m.
Dean Delivers won the Smile Sprint (G3) at Gulfstream Park and was second in Saratoga’s A.G. Vanderbilt (G1) last summer but began to tail off and, after twice finishing off the board in Florida to start 2024, was moved north to trainer Ned Allard at Delaware Park. After a short break, the 5-year-old gelding reeled off four consecutive wins, all in stakes, including a front-running three-quarter-length victory in the six-furlong De Francis.
A win in the five-furlong Rumson Sept. 1 at Monmouth Park followed and earned Dean Delivers another crack at graded company in the Sept. 28 Vosburgh (G3) sprinting seven furlongs over a sloppy track at Aqueduct. He tired to be third, beaten seven lengths, after setting the pace through a half-mile in 46.47 seconds.
“I think that seven-eighths of a mile is a bit of a stretch for him. He’s won going seven-eighths, but I like him best going three-quarters,” Allard said. “I thought the race at Aqueduct was pretty tough. He ran OK, but I thought I’d stay away from those kind and get back to reality, so to speak.”
The De Francis was Dean Delivers’ only previous trip to Laurel, but Allard won the Dave’s Friend in 2015 with Always Sunshine who would go on to win the 2016 Maryland Sprint (G3) at Pimlico. He has had four breezes since the Vosburgh and will have regular rider Jaime Rodriguez aboard from Post 4 in a field of seven.
“Jaime really likes him and the horse responds really well for him. I think we look good in there,” Allard said. “I gave him a little break because he’s run hard all year, but he’s sharp as a tack and feeling good. He had a nice [final] breeze for the race. He’s had a little freshening up and he’s doing super. He’s a horse that’s very easy on himself. He’s not difficult to train, and he likes being a racehorse.”
The Dave’s Friend also drew another Grade 3 winner in Susan Moulton’s 8-year-old Manny Wah, looking to snap a winless streak that dates back to his victory in the 2022 Phoenix (G2) at Keeneland. Subsequently fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), Manny Wah began this year with back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Toboggan (G3) and Tom Fool (G3) at Aqueduct an exits a sixth in the six-furlong Phoenix Oct. 4.
Witty, a three-time stakes winner on turf and dirt bred, trained and co-owned by Elizabeth Merryman, steps back into stakes company following a half-length optional claiming allowance triumph going six furlongs Nov. 2 at Laurel, where he owns three wins and two seconds in five tries over the main track including the 2022 Spectacular Bid. He has been first or second in 10 of 14 tries on dirt and nine of 13 races on turf, where he was runner-up in this summer’s Highlander (G2) at Woodbine.
Younger half-brother to retired Grade 1 millionaire mare Caravel, Witty preceded his last-out win with off-the-board finishes in the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint (G2) and Maryland Million Turf Sprint.
“It was great to have him back in the winner’s circle again. His last two starts before that had been on really firm turf that he just really hated,” Merryman said. “He’s almost been equal on turf and dirt so we figured it was time to go back to dirt rather than struggle with hard turf. He ran back to his old self.”
Witty will break from Post 3 with regular rider Jevian Toledo.
“He always lays back in the early part of the race, and the dirt races give him a little bit of extra ground and sometimes tire out the speed a little bit. That can help him if there’s enough speed in the race,” Merryman said. “Dean Delivers is a consistent, tough horse that’s been beating some pretty nice horses this year. I think it’ll be very competitive race so we’ll see how it all plays out. Hopefully there’s a bit of speed that backs up.”
Multiple stakes winner No Cents, who snapped a 15-race losing streak Oct. 10 at Laurel; New York-bred stakes-placed gelding Factually Correct; Five Dreams, third to Dean Delivers in the Rumson; and Mr. Antonelli complete the field.
Dave’s Friend, the first pure sprinter to earn over $1 million, started 76 times over nine seasons from 1978-86 and retired at age 11 with 35 wins and as Maryland’s all-time leading money earner. Seventeen of his wins came in stakes at nine different tracks, including the Marylander (G3) and Patriot (G3) in 1978, when he also finished second in the Monmouth Invitational (G1). Maryland’s Horse of the Year in 1980 and inducted into the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame in 2016, Dave’s Friend set records at four different tracks.
Sophomore Copper Tax to Face Older Horses in Richard W. Small
Rose Petal Stable’s multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old Copper Tax, third in his comeback race earlier this month, will face a new challenge when tackling older horses for the first time in Saturday’s $100,000 Richard W. Small.
Copper Tax went 4 ½ months from running third in the June 22 Ohio Derby (G3) to a similar finish in the Nov. 3 Discovery at Aqueduct, both at 1 1/8 miles, a distance where he won Laurel’s April 20 Federico Tesio to earn – and ultimately pass on – an automatic berth to the 149th Preakness Stakes (G1).
“He’s coming into it good,” trainer Gary Capuano said. “It’s just a test to run against older horses for the first time, but everything looks to be in order.”
Capuano was pleased with Copper Tax’s Discovery, a race where he encountered early trouble for the third straight time and trailed for a half-mile before making his usual late run and winding up 3 ¼ lengths behind winner Generous Tipper.
“He ran a real good race,” Capuano said. “It was what we were planning on. We wanted to go in that race and hope that he ran well coming off the layoff going a mile and an eighth and he did. He ran really well and was closing. He had a chance and kind of got bumped a little coming out of the gate and bottled up a little bit going into the first turn but he came running like he usually does.”
J.G. Torrealba gets the return call on Copper Tax from Post 2 in a field of eight at co-topweight of 124 pounds. The Copper Bullet colt is a perfect 3-0 at Laurel, also winning the 2023 James F. Lewis and March 23 Private Terms.
“He hasn’t gotten a clean trip out of the gate and going into the first turn in a few races, so he’s gotten in a little bit of a jackpot but he’s always run well. Hopefully he gets a good, clean trip and he can handle some of these older, class horses,” Capuano said. “He runs well here. He’s run well at just about every track he’s run except Tampa [which] was the only track that he didn’t care for a whole lot. We can’t ask for him to do much better than he has. We’re excited to have him back.”
Leading the older challengers are the Jamie Ness-trained pair of 7-year-old Magic Michael and 6-year-old Excellorator, who have combined for 25 wins and $1.185 million in purse earnings from 72 starts. Magic Michael won the 2021 Greenwood Cup (G3) and has been third or better in seven of nine Laurel starts, placing in four stakes. Excellorator, disqualified from first to second in the 2021 Tesio, has won two straight and three of four since being claimed for $40,000 July 5.
Cataleya Strike, winless in three prior stakes attempts, also takes a two-race win streak into the Small. Both victories have come against older horses for the 3-year-old, including an open 1 1/8-mile allowance Sept. 27. Mosler Time enters off a runner-up finish after setting the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Maryland Million Classic Oct. 12.
Multiple stakes winner Ain’t Da Beer Cold; 2022 Small winner Armando R and stakes-placed Elephants Ear, racing first time for trainer Bruno Tessore, are also entered.
Formerly run as the Broad Brush, the multi-millionaire and four-time Grade 1 winner he trained, the Richard W. Small was renamed following the beloved horseman’s death from cancer in 2014. Baltimore-born ‘Dickie’ Small served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War as a Green Beret before becoming a trainer, also campaigning Broad Brush’s son, 1994 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Concern. He won at least one stakes race in Maryland every year but one between 1974 and 2014 and is also known for helping launch the riding careers of female jockeys such as Andrea Seefeldt, Jerilyn Brown, Rosie Napravnik and Forest Boyce.
Stakes Winners Simply Stated, Bourbon Bon Bay Top Willa On the Move
Stakes winners Simply Stated and Bourbon Bon Bay and stakes-placed Mattitude and Ms. Bucchero are set to line up in a wide-open edition of the $100,000 Willa On the Move.
Commonwealth New Era Racing’s Simply Stated returned from more than six months away with a front-running 5 ¼-length optional claiming allowance triumph sprinting 5 ½ furlongs Sept 29. It was her first start since joining trainer Brittany Russell, leading the current fall meet and overall Maryland standings, and second win following last summer’s Penn Ladies Dash for previous trainer Mike Trombetta.
Erin Hlubik 7-year-old homebred Bourbon Bon Bay rattled off five wins to open a career that didn’t get under way until she was 4 and has included multiple stops and starts since. She went unraced for 13 ½-months and changed barns to trainer Ned Allard before returning to be fifth behind multiple stakes winner Foxy Junior in the seven-furlong Maryland Million Distaff Oct. 12.
Pepe Stable and JLM Jacona Stable’s Mattitude is an eight-time career winner that ran sixth in the Distaff two starts after finishing third in the 6 ½-furlong Shine Again Aug. 24 at Timonium. Ms. Bucchero, owned and trained by Diane Morici, was second to Feb. 17 Barbara Fritchie (G3) winner Apple Picker and has not run since finishing ninth in the Sept. 14 Sensible Lady Turf Dash, her grass debut.
Rounding out the field is Pudd’n N Pie. Trainer Jorge Delgado said Grade 2 winner Olivia Darling will scratch to run in a Nov. 24 allowance at their home track of Gulfstream Park.
Willa On the Move was a Maryland-bred daughter of Assert (IRE) that raced 12 times as a 3-year-old in 1988 winning five stakes, including the Marshua and Gay Matelda at Laurel Park and Moccasin and Caesar’s Wish at Pimlico. From there she won the Ashland (G1), ran third in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Alabama (G1) and second in the Gazelle (G1) and Spinster (G1) before being retired following the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).