Unbeaten Bound by Destiny Tests Streak in $100,000 Smart Halo

LAUREL, MD – Honeyquist, a son and grandson of juvenile champions, will get a chance to further the family legacy when he faces stakes company for the second straight start in Saturday’s $100,000 James F. Lewis III at Laurel Park.

The 11th running of the Lewis for 2-year-olds and 26th edition of the $100,000 Smart Halo for 2-year-old fillies, both sprinting six furlongs, join the $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go for fillies and mares 3 and up on the 10-race program.

First race post time is 11:45 a.m.

Campaigned by Mammas Boys Thoroughbred Racing Group, Ultra Championship Racing and James Miller, who bred the horse in West Virginia, Honeyquist is by Nyquist out of the Invisible Ink mare Honey Chile. Nyquist won the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old of 2015 while his sire, Uncle Mo, earned the same honors in 2010.

Honeyquist, based at Laurel with trainer Anthony Farrior, fetched $170,000 at auction last winter and debuted with a come-from-behind 5 ¼-length maiden special weight victory sprinting 4 ½ furlongs Sept. 24 at Charles Town. He stretched out to 6 ½ furlongs for his return in the Oct. 8 Vincent Moscarelli Memorial, also against state-breds, where he set the pace into deep stretch before grudgingly giving way to be second by less than a length.

“The first time we ran him he wasn’t fit. We kind of rushed him because we wanted to run in that stake race at Charles Town, and he just came up short in the stake,” Farrior said. “He probably had only worked three times before he ran the first time. But he’s a very smart horse.

“I sent him to the farm for 10 days after the stake race and gave him a little time,” he added. “We brought him back and he worked in 59 [seconds] on Sunday with [jockey Jevian] Toledo and did it really well, so he’s going in the right direction. I think he’s fit now. He’s bouncing around there real good.”

Toledo, also up in the Moscarelli, gets the return call from outermost Post 7. Honeyquist will be racing on his home track after being sent off as the favorite in each of his first two starts.

“He can run out of his own stall. He doesn’t have to go anywhere,” Farrior said. “I think this will be the first race where he’s actually fit. The first race he was probably 60 percent and the stake race he might have been 70 percent. Now, he looks good. He’s grown some and filled out.

“I think this will be the best race he’s run in,” he added. “He should improve. He ran a 73 Beyer [Speed Figure] the first time and he only had three works. If he improves, we have a shot.”

ItsTheJHo’s Heldish aims for a return to the winner’s circle for the first time since his unveiling July 1 at Laurel, which was the first win for owner Justin Horowitz and first for jockey Sheldon Russell off a 296-day gap between races.

Bred in Maryland by Larry Johnson, the Great Notion colt has run second in each of his last three starts, beaten a half-length in the five-furlong Hickory Tree Aug. 9 at Colonial Downs and five lengths by Dale Capuano-trained Johnyz From Albany in the six-furlong Maryland Million Nursery last out Oct. 22 at Laurel.

“I thought he ran a big race in the Nursery. I thought he ran huge,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “His numbers seems to keep stepping forward each run. Dale’s horse ran big. You can’t take anything away from the winner. Running second to him that day, I’m happy with that. Of course we want to win, but Dale’s horse is a racehorse so that’s all right.”

Heldish beat Johnyz From Albany by a neck when second in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance Sept. 10 at historic Pimlico Race Course, a race where Heldish hit the gate at the break and found himself behind horses for the first time. The winner, Super Chow, ran third in the Saratoga Special (G2) and went on to win the Bowman Mill Oct. 29 at Keeneland.

Heldish drew the rail for his fifth start, all with Sheldon Russell aboard.

“That’s just it. We’re not down on our horse for running second a couple times to some good horses,” Brittany Russell said. “You don’t know until the afternoon. If he leaves there running, hopefully he’s the fastest horse this time.”

Trainer Cal Lynch won the Lewis in 2020 with No Cents and 2016 with subsequent multiple Grade 3 winner El Areeb and will be represented Saturday by Recruiter, undefeated in two starts. He graduated at first asking in a five-furlong maiden special weight Aug. 27 at Monmouth Park and captured a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance in the slop Oct. 2 at Laurel over Johnyz From Albany, both in front-running fashion.

Also unbeaten at 2-0 is Where is Mike, owned and trained by Charles Town-based Mike Jones Jr. The Daddy Long Legs colt has been untested in both starts over his home track, winning his Sept. 17 unveiling by five lengths before a three-length allowance triumph Oct. 19, each going 4 ½ furlongs.

Sept. 1 Dover runner-up Riccio, third last out in the one-mile Rocky Run Oct. 15, both at Delaware Park; Coffeewithchris, whose trainer, John Salzman Jr., won last year’s Lewis with Local Motive; and Tiz No Clown complete the field.

The James F. Lewis III honors the late longtime Maryland horseman and first president of Maryland Million Ltd. He bred and/or campaigned a number of prominent runners in the region, led by 1974 Test (G2) winner Maybelline, Flirtation (G3) winner Heartful and multiple stakes winner Swift Attraction. His daughter, Lisa, is a multiple graded-stakes winning trainer based in New York and Florida.

Unbeaten Bound by Destiny Tests Streak $100,000 Smart Halo

Black Cloud Racing Stable’s Bound by Destiny, undefeated through four starts, looks to extend her streak with a third consecutive stakes victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Smart Halo at Laurel Park.

Based with trainer Anthony Pecoraro, Bound by Destiny will be venturing away from her Delaware Park home for the first time following wins in the 5 ½-furlong Blue Hen Aug. 31 and six-furlong Small Wonder Sept. 28, both against Delaware-bred/certified horses.

“She hasn’t done anything wrong yet,” Pecoraro said. “Eveyrthing she’s doing is right. She’s doing very well and growing up. She’s ready for the next step.”

Bound by Destiny debuted in a five-furlong maiden claimer July 1, romping by 14 lengths in front-running fashion. She returned in an optional claimer Aug. 10 and found herself behind horses before getting up to win by a neck going 5 ½ furlongs. Those two efforts led her to being favored in each of her stakes victories.

“We always liked her because she could run. What happened was I had her ready and the maiden special weight didn’t go and then the [next race] didn’t go and I thought, ‘Let’s just run this horse and go forward with that,’” Pecoraro said. “She’s a waiver claimer anyway, so that’s what we did. We ran her in there and she won by a pole.

“She came back in the allowance race and won again and won two stakes in a row. She does just enough to win, and not any more,” he added. “She’s fast, but she’s versatile. There’s always those guys that want to be on the lead and she can sit off that if she has to, which is good.”

Jeremy Rose, aboard for all four of her starts, gets the return call from Post 4 in a field of eight.

“We were going to run her in this race and then give her the season off,” Pecoraro said. “It all depended on how she came out of the last race, and she came out of it good, so that’s why we’re in there. We’re looking forward to it.”

Also among the entries is Morris Kernan and Jagger Inc.’s Chickieness. The daughter of second-year sire Blofeld ran second to Bound by Destiny in both Delaware Park stakes, beaten 5 ¾ and 1 ½ lengths, before stepping up with a popular 1 ½-length triumph in the Maryland Million Lassie Oct. 22.

Ness, who owns horses as Jagger Inc., bred Chickieness at his farm in Chesapeake City, Md. Approaching 3,800 career wins, Ness also trained the mare, Chickaletta, who finished third or better in 13 of 29 starts including five wins.

“We’ve got about 16 mares and [Chickieness] was the first one in the Maryland Million. We’re pretty excited about her,” Ness said. “We just started a few years ago and we’re getting more and more every year. It’s good for me because the mares that I like and are good runners, at retirement time we take them to the farm and breed them. It’s good for the horse.

“We’ve had a few 4-year-olds, a few 3-year-olds and now we’re getting more 2-year-olds. We’re just building it up,” he added. “I’ve been doing this a long time and it’s kind of nice to change it up a little bit. It’s good to see that the mares than can run are producing horses that can run.”

Runnymoore Racing’s Dissolute is entered to make her second career start after going gate to wire to win a five-furlong off-the-turf maiden special weight by 9 ¼ lengths Oct. 13 at Delaware. Also exiting a win is Victorias Ranch’s Shiny Slam, who went all the way on the lead in a 6 ½-furlong Parx optional claimer Sept. 26.

Godolphin homebred Twice as Sweet, trained by Brendan Walsh, broke her maiden second time out in a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint Aug. 28 at Ellis Park, and was second in a six-furlong dirt allowance Oct. 7 at Keeneland to Key of Life, who returned to win the Myrtlewood three weeks later.

Diamondsifyoudo was purchased by Glenangus Farm for $300,000 as a 2-year-old in training in March and has made one start for trainer Graham Motion, finishing second by a half-length as the favorite in an Oct. 12 maiden special weight sprinting seven furlongs at Keeneland.

Rounding out the field are JoAnn Smith’s Gormley’s Gabriela, promoted winner of a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance Sept. 30 at Laurel, and Michael Eiserman, Earl Silver and Kenneth Fishbein’s Miss Georgie, who ran third – 1 ¼ lengths behind Gormley’s Gabriela – and was placed second in the same race.

Smart Halo, by top Maryland sire Smarten, won the first race on the inaugural Maryland Million Day program in 1986, beating In the Curl by a neck in the Lassie to cap a perfect 3-0 campaign. Bred in Canada by E.P. Taylor and owned by Sam-Son Farm, Smart Halo was trained by Canadian Hall of Famer Jim Day.