Hybrid Eclipse Set to Launch 5YO Season in $100,000 Nellie Morse
Among Six Stakes, Two Graded, Worth $900,000 in Purses Feb. 18

LAUREL, MD – J R Sanchez Racing Stable’s claimer-turned-multiple stakes winner Shake Em Loose, a solid second in his comeback race last month, is entered to make his return to stakes company Saturday in the $100,000 John B. Campbell at Laurel Park.

The 67th running of the Campbell for 4-year-olds and up and 40th renewal of the $100,000 Nellie Morse for fillies and mares 4 and older, both going about 1 1/16 miles, are among six stakes worth $900,000 in purses on a 10-race Winter Carnival program headlined by the $250,000 General George (G3) and $250,000 Barbara Fritchie (G3).

Post time is 12:25 p.m.

Owned and trained by Rudy Sanchez-Salomon, who claimed the Shakin It Up gelding for $16,000 in November 2021, Shake Em Loose sprung a 59-1 upset in the Heft in the first start for his new connections. At 3 he won the Private Terms and was third in the Federico Tesio, was nominated to the Triple Crown and under brief consideration for the Preakness Stakes (G1) before being rerouted to the James Murphy on grass on the undercard.

Shake Em Loose had small chips removed from his ankles following the Murphy and was given plenty of time to recover, not racing again until making his season debut Jan. 15 in an open 1 1/16-mile allowance at Laurel – his first try against older horses.

“I was planning to run him short, but we couldn’t get him a race going seven-eighths or three-quarters back at the time so I ran him going long and he really ran really impressive,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “It was a great race off a long layoff.”

Shake Em Loose chased the pace throughout and held off American d’Oro by a neck for second Zabracadabra, both six-time winners. American d’Oro edged Zabracadabra by a neck in their rematch Feb. 12, a race that included stakes winners Hello Hot Rod and Alwaysinahurry.

“He ran against really tough competition. Those horses that he ran against are really nice horses. After a nine-month layoff, he came back really good. We’re going to go day by day,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “He came back out of that race really well, and he’s doing really good.”

Owner-trainer Norman ‘Lynn’ Cash entered the trio of Double Crown, Plot the Dots and Treasure Trove. Double Crown’s most recent win came in the Kelso (G2) last fall at Aqueduct, and he exits a third behind Far Mo Power in a Parx allowance Jan. 30, both coming at one mile.

Plot the Dots is set to wheel back 13 days after finishing third as the favorite in a one-mile optional claiming allowance at Laurel. It was the sixth start for the 6-year-old Uncle Mo gelding since being claimed for $40,000 last fall, and followed a five-length triumph in the Jennings against Maryland-bred/sired horses Jan. 21, his first career stakes win.

“He ran huge to win the stakes. I don’t know that he didn’t completely fire last time, but we didn’t have any pace to close into in the four-horse field,” Cash said. “He didn’t run bad but there just wasn’t a pace to close into and he needs that, and Treasure Trove needs that, also.”

Treasure Trove has won 11 of 49 lifetime starts including each of his last two, optional claiming allowance spots going 1 1/8 miles Jan. 15 at Laurel and Feb. 5 at Aqueduct. He finished fourth behind his now stablemate Galerio in last year’s Campbell.

“This is a horse that runs forever. He absolutely will run forever. He came back after the mile and an eighth race and wasn’t even blowing. He just got up that day,” Cash said. “It was a monster race.”

Stakes winners Ournationonparade, Armando R, Nimitz Class and Vance Scholars strengthen what is an evenly matched field of 10. Morris Kernan, Yo Berbs and Jagger Inc.’s Ournationonparade is the narrow 3-1 program favorite, having run behind Armando R, Nimitz Class and Plot the Dots in three successive stakes following his victory in the 2021 Maryland Million Classic.

Ronald Cuneo’s Armando R won an off-the-grass Japan Turf Cup and Richard W. Small last fall at Laurel before his streak was snapped when fifth behind Nimitz Class in the Robert T. Manfuso Dec. 30, the last start for both horses. Steve Newby’s Vance Scholars won the Bald Eagle Derby last summer, also rained off the turf, before finishing second in the Classic to Ournationonparade and third behind Plot the Dots and Armando R, the latter in the Japan Turf Cup.

Matt Spencer, Kelly Jo Cox and Bonuccelli Racing’s Manfuso runner-up Ain’t Da Beer Cold is also entered.

John B. Campbell was a renowned handicapper and racing secretary for four decades until his death at age 77 in 1954, including old Bowie Race Course in 1952-53, perhaps best known for the triple dead heat for win he weighted in the 1944 Carter Handicap.

Hybrid Eclipse Set to Launch 5YO Season in $100,000 Nellie Morse

The Elkstone Group’s Hybrid Eclipse, coming off a career-best year, is set to launch what her connections hope is another strong season in Saturday’s $100,000 Nellie Morse.

A 5-year-old daughter of Paynter, Hybrid Eclipse had three wins and three thirds from seven starts in 2022 including her first stakes victories in the one-mile Caesar’s Wish and 1 1/16-mile Thirty Eight Go Go at Laurel, both since joining trainer Brittany Russell.

Purchased by Elkstone’s Stuart Grant following the Caesar’s Wish for $107,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s July sale, Hybrid Eclipse also earned graded-stakes black type after finishing third to eventual champion 3-year-old filly Nest in last fall’s Beldame (G3) at Aqueduct.

“You’d like to see it set her up to do something bigger this year,” Russell said of the Nellie Morse. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself or anything, but there’s plenty of options in the Mid-Atlantic over the summer and we’re hoping for a big year from her.”

Hybrid Eclipse drew the rail and was made the 2-1 program favorite over six rivals in the Nellie Morse, her first start since finishing third behind Malibu Beauty and Cover Version in the 1 1/8-mile Carousel Dec. 30 at Laurel.

“I like the post. You don’t want to be getting hung out there, so I’m fine with that for her,” Russell said. “She came out of the last one in good order and she’s been working right along each week. She’s doing really well. I’m happy with her.”

Hybrid Eclipse had an outward post in the Carousel, where she was hustled into position and chased front-running winner Malibu Beauty before tiring late. Jevian Toledo, aboard in the Caesar’s Wish, gets the return call.

“She ran well last time,” Russell said. “I feel like she had to make a run down the backside and it was just going to be a little too much. She kind of made a run, and it was going to have to be a long, sustained run, and I feel like she had a lot to do. Not a terrible effort, but probably not the ideal racing situation, either.”

No Guts No Glory Farm and Erica Upton’s Award Wanted, a 6-year-old Macho Uno mare, brings a two-race win streak into the Nellie Morse. Trained and co-owned by Jerry Robb, Award Wanted ended 2022 with an optional claiming allowance triumph sprinting 5 ½ furlongs, and opened 2023 with a dominating 5 ¾-length score in the one-mile Geisha against Maryland-bred/sired horses Jan. 21, both at Laurel, where he has a 5-4-3 record from 19 tries.

Hope Jones’ 4-year-old filly Buy the Best has gone winless in six starts since taking the 2021 Smart Halo and Gin Talking back-to-back to cap her juvenile campaign. Among her races last year she ran fourth behind Chub Wagon facing older horses for the first time in Laurel’s Alma North, and she exits a third in the seven-furlong Mrs. Claus Jan. 4 at Parx.

Moma Tiger, exiting a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance win Jan. 18 at Charles Town; Runaway Monet, fourth in the Carousel; and the Robert E. ‘Butch’ Reid Jr.-trained pair of multiple stakes-placed Ninetypercentbrynn and Mrs. Claus fourth-place finisher Pistol Liz Ablazen are also entered.

The Nellie Morse pays tribute to the fourth of just six fillies to win the Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, a feat she accomplished in 1924 just three days after capturing the Pimlico Oaks, now run as the Black-Eyed Susan (G2). As a broodmare her daughter, Nellie Flag, was the champion 2-year-old of 1934 and beaten favorite in the 1935 Kentucky Derby (G1). Descendants of Nellie Morse, through Nellie Flag, include three-time Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Forego, 1976 Kentucky Derby winner and 3-year-old champion Bold Forbes, and 1943 champion handicap mare Mar-Kell.