Former Jockey Kreidel Returns to Ride in Friday Opener
Rainbow 6 Carryover Tops $40,000 for Maryland Pride Day Card
Mandatory Payouts Scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 18

LAUREL, MD – No Guts No Glory Farm’s Anna’s Bandit straightened for home in front and outran fellow stakes winners Majestic Reason and Shimmering Aspen the length of Laurel Park’s stretch for a thrilling one-length triumph in Friday’s feature race.

Anna’s Bandit ($5.80) ran seven furlongs over a fast main track in 1:23.28 under regular rider Xavier Perez to register her 11th career victory – five of them coming in stakes – and eighth at Laurel in the $55,000 open allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up.

Majestic Reason, winner of the 2018 Miss Disco at Laurel, ran second for her first loss from three starts this year, with multiple stakes winner Shimmering Aspen another 1 ¾ lengths back in third. Trace of Grace, a stakes winner last fall at Parx, was fourth.

“It was a tough race. It was just as tough as any stake I’m in,” winning breeder-trainer Jerry Robb said. “We were worried because there wasn’t any speed in there. We didn’t know how it was going to shape up. I turned out she was up there with them, which kept her five wide. Thankfully, she was good enough.”

Anna’s Bandit was in the clear but unable to save ground breaking from the far outside post and racing four wide into the far turn as I’ll Take the Cake was in front after a quarter in 23.61 seconds and a half in 47.22, when Anna’s Bandit cut her lead to just a head. Anna’s Bandit swung around the turn in front and was determined to stay there, with Majestic Reason and 6-5 favorite Shimmering Aspen, who drew the rail, looming to her inside.

“I said to my wife at the three-eighths pole that we were going to be hung wide and the favorite’s going to get through on the fence,” Robb said. “I thought that would make the difference, but she’s tough.”

“She’s all heart. All heart,” said Perez, who has won five races in the past two days. “That was all her.”

Anna’s Bandit had been fourth in her previous two outings, the Skipat at Pimlico Race Course and the Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired horses on Laurel’s world-class turf course July 14. Winless in three career tries on the grass, the 5-year-old Great Notion mare enjoyed her most recent stakes success in the Conniver at Laurel and Original Gold at Charles Town this spring.

“She hates the turf but I keep telling myself, ‘It’s Maryland-breds, let’s try it.’ She just doesn’t run as good on it. I thought it was easy enough where she’d be able to run good enough on the turf, but I was wrong,” Robb said.

“I’ll just keep her on the dirt. There’s plenty of spots for her,” he added. We’ll see how she comes back. You’ve got the Maryland Million, you’ve got the West Virginia-bred races, the Maryland-bred race at Timonium if she bounces back all right. I’m sure that race will be a whole lot easier than this one.”

The $75,000 Timonium Distaff for Maryland-bred/sired females 3 and older going about 6 ½ furlongs is Aug. 31 during the Maryland State Fair meet that bridges Laurel’s summer and fall stands.

Former Jockey Kreidel Returns to Ride in Friday Opener

Ex-jockey Kaymarie Kreidel, a full-time outrider for the Maryland Jockey Club following her retirement from race riding, made a return to the irons for Friday’s opener at Laurel Park.

Kreidel finished seventh in the one-mile claiming event for 3-year-olds and up on the Dahlia turf course aboard Red Clay Road, a 5-year-old gelding trained and co-owned by her son, Anthony Aguirre Jr.

“It was quite nice to actually come out of semi-retirement, I guess, and ride for him. I wish I could have done better,” Kreidel said. “Unfortunately, he was a little fussy in the gate so we got a bad break and he’s a speed horse. I kind of had to hustle him to get [near] the lead and then he kind of faltered at the end. But, my son said it’s the first time he drank two buckets of water where he barely drank a bucket the last two times he ran, so he definitely got a lot more out of this race even though he didn’t finish well.”

Kreidel and Red Clay Road got within a head of pacesetter America’s Prince after a half-mile in 46.73 seconds and was just two heads off the lead through six furlongs in 1:11.57 despite hopping as the starting gate opened, but weakened to beat one horse in the field of eight.

“He broke bad. He started to act like he was going to rear when the doors opened and it was just bad timing. I had to hustle him a little bit to get him up there with the front-runners,” Kreidel said. “The horse has a bigger heart when he’s on the lead than coming from off of it, and we knew that, so we were trying to give him the upper hand. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.”

Friday’s race was the first for Kreidel since Puturseatbelton was sixth April 23, 2017, also at Laurel. She quit full-time riding after the 2006 season but has had at least one mount in seven of 10 years since 2010. Starting in 1991, Kreidel won 190 races from 2,530 mounts with more than $3 million in purse earnings.

“I really do love riding races. I only retired because I just kept getting hurt too much,” Kreidel said. “When the opportunity came up to become a full-time outrider, I couldn’t turn it down. It’s a steady income, benefits and, being on my own horses, it’s a little safer. But, when the chance comes to ride in the afternoon, I don’t turn it down.”

Friday’s race was just the fourth starter for Aguirre Jr., 24, three of them coming with Red Clay Road. He has yet to register his first win while his father, also based at Laurel, owns 139 wins since 2001.

“He’s only been training for about the past month now,” Kreidel said. “I’m very excited for him.”

Kreidel gained recognition earlier this year for her outstanding catch of a loose Bodexpress following the May 18 Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course. She took the rest of Friday off but will be back at her day job for Saturday’s 12-race Maryland Pride Day program.

Rainbow 6 Carryover Tops $40,000 for Maryland Pride Day Card

After going unsolved Friday at Laurel Park, the 20-cent Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot swelled to $40,072.77 for Saturday’s 12-race Maryland Pride Day program featuring four stakes for Maryland-bred/sired horses worth $300,000 in purses.

First race post time is 1:10 p.m.

In addition to a full card of live racing, fans will be treated to live music; family events including pony rides, petting zoos and face painters; and an outdoor marketplace filled with local Maryland businesses ranging from spirits to soaps to the Baltimore Orioles. A red Maryland Jockey Club t-shirt will also be given away with program purchase, while supplies last.

No horses were live to take down the Rainbow 6 jackpot heading into Friday’s 10th-race finale, won by favored Iron Lion ($5). Tickets with five of six winners were each worth $476.24.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

Saturday’s Rainbow 6 covers Races 7-12, kicked off by the $75,000 Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds. Also in the sequence are the $75,000 All Brandy for fillies and mares 3 and older in Race 8 and $75,000 Find for 3-year-olds and up in Race 9, both 1 1/16 miles on Laurel’s world-class turf course, and $75,000 Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies in Race 10.

Coinciding with the close of the 43-day summer meet, there will be mandatory payouts in the Rainbow 6, 50-cent Late Pick 5 and $1 Super Hi-5 wagers Sunday, Aug. 18. Live racing returns to Laurel Friday, Sept. 6 for the start of the calendar year-ending fall stand.

Notes: Jockey Trevor McCarthy doubled Friday aboard Tizcreetly ($5.60) in Race 1 and Judi Blue Eyes ($7.20) in Race 8. Xavier Perez also had two wins, with Kamehameha ($15) in Race 5 and Anna’s Bandit ($5.80) in Race 7. Judi Blue Eyes was the first of two straight wins for trainer Ann Merryman, followed by Not in Jeopardy ($13.80) in Race 9.