G3 Winner Apple Picker Back Home for $100,000 Alma North
De Francis Dash Tops Four Stakes Worth $450,000 in Purses
LAUREL, MD – Rising Sun Racing Stables, Inc.’s Play Harder, promoted to a stakes victory that extended his win streak to three races last time out, looks to make it four in a row against familiar foe Celtic Contender and a quartet of shippers in Sunday’s $100,000 Concern at Laurel Park.
The eighth running of the seven-furlong Concern for 3-year-olds, honoring the first Maryland-bred winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), is the first of four stakes worth $450,000 in purses on a 10-race program headlined by the listed $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs.
First race post time is 12:25 p.m.
Though based at Monmouth Park with its leading trainer, Claudio Gonzalez, who topped Maryland’s annual standings six straight years from 2017-22, Play Harder has raced exclusively at Laurel where he owns five wins from six career starts. In the June 29 Star de Naskra he came up a nose short after battling through the stretch with Celtic Contender, only to be moved up when his rival was disqualified to second for interference.
“He ran a winning race, but Celtic Contender ran a winning race also,” Rising Sun’s Dan Eubanks said. “Claudio is an amazing trainer, and he does an incredible job getting horses prepared to race. He’s had two workouts since the race, which he normally does. He’s training really well, doing good, eating up his feed. This time of year, sometimes these 3-year-olds keep developing and growing and he seems to be that kind of horse right now.”
The only other time Play Harder hasn’t finished first came when he ran third, beaten less than a length, after acting up at the gate and breaking slowly in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance April 7. He rebounded to take a restricted allowance and another optional claiming spot going one mile before facing Maryland-bred/sired competition in the Star de Naskra.
Five of Play Harder’s starts have come this year after racing just once as a 2-year-old, capturing a six-furlong maiden claiming event last September when he ran for a $30,000 tag. Purchased for $25,000 three months earlier, he has banked $171,895 in purse earnings.
“We’ve taken our time with him. We started off pretty conservative with the maiden 30 and he showed us the talent he had, so we gave him some time and brought him back in the spring,” Eubanks said. “He’s rewarded that extra time, obviously, with four wins in five starts. He ran a big number last time.
“This is tougher competition. Celtic Contender, he’s in there and there’s some out-of-towners. We won’t have an easy task ahead of us but I’m looking forward to it. It’s a very competitive race with a lot of good horses in there,” he added. “This is our home track. All of our races have been here. Same with Celtic Contender. They race and train over that track and that is an advantage when you’ve run on the surface before.”
Lewis Family Racing Stable’s Celtic Contender went unraced at 2 and graduated by 10 ½ lengths in his second start, a one-mile waiver maiden claimer Feb. 18. Subsequently made a late nominee to the Triple Crown he finished off the board in the Private Terms and Federico Tesio, both around two turns, before winning a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance June 8 in his Star de Naskra prep.
Celtic Contender drew Post 2 under Jorge Ruiz, aboard for the first time, while Play Harder will break from outermost Post 6 with regular rider J.G. Torrealba in the irons.
“There’s a lot of speed in this race,” Eubanks said. “Kind of what I’m hoping for is a lot of horses going out to the lead and hopefully we can track them and catch them in that extra furlong.”
Stonehedge Farm Inc.’s Florida homebred Sunny Breeze comes in from Delaware Park with an unblemished 2-0 record for his stakes debut. The Cajun Breeze gelding beat older horses by seven lengths sprinting 5 ½ furlongs in his May 22 unveiling at Monmouth Park and came back with a 1 ½-length optional claiming allowance triumph going six furlongs July 8 at Delaware, both under Laurel’s summer meet-leading jockey Jaime Rodriguez.
“The first time I ran him I thought he’d run a good race, but I wasn’t prepared for him to win like that. He outran his works, which doesn’t happen very often. When it does, it’s a nice surprise,” trainer Ned Allard said. “Then he came back and basically did the same thing. It was not quite as easy a victory but Jaime really likes him and thinks he hasn’t really found himself yet. I think it’s an interesting race for us.”
Sunny Breeze, whose two wins have come in front-running fashion, drew Post 3 with Rodriguez up.
“I don’t think he has to be on the lead. I think going a little further you can sit on him a little bit and let him get his act together, and he’s got a great finish,” Allard said. “I almost considered running him in a stake off of his first win, but seeing as it took me by surprise I figured he needed a little more experience.”
Willy D’s, second to multiple stakes winner Valentine Candy in last winter’s Advent at Oaklawn Park; El Capi, a 9 ½-length maiden special weight winner in December at Aqueduct that ran fourth against elders in his return to the races June 7 at Saratoga; and Barksdale, fourth as the favorite in the Dade Park Dash July 4 at Ellis Park, complete the field.
Concern, trained by the late Dickie Small, won seven of 30 career starts and more than $3 million in purse earnings from 1993-95. His 1994 season included wins in the Breeders’ Cup and Arkansas Derby (G2), seconds in the Travers (G1), Super Derby (G1) and Ohio Derby (G2) and thirds in the Preakness (G1), Haskell (G1), Molson Export Million (G2) and Round Table (G3).
G3 Winner Apple Picker Back Home for $100,000 Alma North
For the first time since mid-February, when she became a graded-stakes winner, Michael Dubb’s Apple Picker will be racing over her home track of Laurel Park in Sunday’s $100,000 Alma North for fillies and mares 3 and up.
The eighth running of the 6 ½-furlong Alma North is the second of four stakes worth $450,000 in purses on a 10-race program headlined by the listed $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs.
Trainer Brittany Russell, who became the first woman in history to win the most races in a single season at Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course last year, is hoping a return to familiar surroundings will be beneficial for Apple Picker. The 4-year-old filly ran fourth in the April 6 Distaff (G3) and eighth in the June 15 Bed o’ Roses (G2), both sprinting seven furlongs at Aqueduct, in between winning Pimlico’s six-furlong Skipat May 18 on the undercard of the Preakness Stakes (G1).
“It’s a great distance [and] her home track. This has been on our radar for a while,” Russell said. “We took a couple big swings with her. Mike and I had a conversation about it. It seems like she ran her race last time but we also kind of think maybe she just doesn’t like New York. She’s tried that twice, and we’re just drawing a line through those. She’s training great, she looks great and she loves it at home.”
Apple Picker has raced three times on the main track at Laurel since joining Russell’s string last spring after four starts for New York-based trainer Rudy Rodriguez, running second last fall and winter in the seven-furlong Safely Kept and 6 ½-furlong Willa On the Move. She launched 2024 with a come-from-behind one-length triumph in the Feb. 17 Barbara Fritchie (G3) sprinting seven furlongs, 30 minutes before stablemate Post Time captured the General George (G3).
“Her and Post Time, they made that quite a day for us,” Russell said. “This filly has been neat for us. They had given her some time and they sent her to us hoping maybe we could find her calling here and it took us a minute to do it but once we did she’s been super consistent. She’s very good locally and that’s sort of what we’re looking at here.”
Russell’s husband, champion jockey Sheldon Russell, has the call on Apple Picker from Post 8 in a field of 10.
Merriebelle Stable and Microstar Inc.’s 5-year-old Chilean-bred Joke Sisi earned her first North American victory June 9 at Churchill Downs last time out. It was the seventh start since coming to the U.S. last summer from her native country, where she won the Mil Guineas Maria Luisa Solari Falabella (G1) and Gran Premio Criadores Salvador Hess Riveros (G2) in 2022.
Waldorf Racing Stables’ Talk to the Judge sprung a 13-1 front-running upset of the seven-furlong Miss Disco against Maryland-bred/sired horses last summer at Laurel and ran fifth to Apple Picker in the Weather Vane at Pimlico before getting the rest of the year off. Trained by Marya Montoya, she opened her 4-year-old season with a June 8 allowance victory at Parx and is cross-entered in Friday’s Regret at Monmouth Park.
Deco Strong captured the 2022 Penn Ladies Dash at her home base of Penn National and placed in two subsequent stakes including last fall’s Shine Again against Maryland-bred/sired horses at Pimlico. The 7-year-old mare exits a June 21 Laurel allowance where she ran fourth behind Ms. Bucchero (first) and Happy Clouds (third), also entered in the Alma North. Ms. Bucchero is also cross-entered in the Regret.
Rounding out the field are Sweet Alyssa, a winner of two straight at Louisiana’s Evangeline Downs including the one-mile Opelousas July 6 in her most recent start; 2023 New Start winner Late Frost, third to Apple Picker in the Weather Vane and Skipat as well as subsequent Grade 1 winner Vahva at odds of 96-1 in last year’s Charles Town Oaks (G3);
Bella Bettina and Charriere.
The Alma North is named for the Maryland-bred champion 3-year-old filly and Horse of the Year in 1971 and Maryland-bred champion older filly of 1972. Owned by the late Eugene Mori’s East Acres Stable, Alma North won 23 of 78 career starts with $513,597 in purse earnings from 1970-74. Her victories included graded-stakes scores in the Matchmaker (G1) and Vineland (G2), Margate (G3) and Betsy Ross (G3) handicaps in 1973.