1 3/16-Mile Stakes One of Two on Turf for 3-Year-Olds Sunday

LAUREL, MD – Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners’ Ari Gold, successful in his only prior stakes start, gets an opportunity to rediscover his winning ways when he returns to face similar company in the $100,000 Bald Eagle Derby Sunday, Aug. 13 at Laurel Park.

The fifth running of the Bald Eagle Derby for 3-year-olds, named for the two-time Washington D.C. International winner and the nation’s champion handicap horse of 1960, is the second of two stakes scheduled for the turf on a nine-race program following the $100,000 Searching for 3-year-old fillies.

First race post time is 12:25 p.m.

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, who captured the inaugural Bald Eagle Derby with Channel Cat in 2018, Ari Gold will be making his second start of the year after finishing sixth in his season opener July 20 at Saratoga.

The 1 1/16-mile second-level optional claiming allowance was the first race in more than seven months for Ari Gold, who was also facing older horses for the first time. Bumped at the break, he was prominent early before dropping back and wound up beaten 5 ¾ lengths.

“It was strictly designed as a starting point to get him going again,” Eclipse founder and president Aron Wellman said. “We didn’t love the fact that he had to run against older horses, 2x, optional claiming, which makes it even that much more difficult.

“We knew he had to shake off the rust, so we just wanted to get him going somewhere. I think the race is a little better than it looks on paper, and he’s come out of it well,” he added. “This looks like a logical spot to run in stakes company against 3-year-olds.”

Purchased for $220,000 as a yearling in September 2021, Ari Gold ran fourth in each of his first two starts last fall, one on turf and one on the main track. He graduated in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight last November at Aqueduct and was a front-running winner of the 7 ½-furlong Pulpit in December at Gulfstream Park.

“We were really excited about him at the end of last year. He was getting good,” Wellman said. “We let him run two very organic races to start his career. We knew he was a bit green and finally decided to put the blinkers on him, which he acted like he probably needed to begin with, and it really woke him up.

“He’s a different kind of horse because he’s fast and he can sustain his speed,” he added. “Unfortunately, we had to send him to the sidelines for the winter, but he came back in the spring and has trained really well. We needed to get that race into him a few weeks ago at Saratoga and now, hopefully, he’s ready to really blossom the second half of the season.”

Laurel summer meet leader Jaime Rodriguez gets the riding assignment from Post 3 in a field of eight.

“I don’t think he needs the lead. I think it’ll be a function of what the race looks like and who the other speed might be, but he’s versatile,” Wellman said. “It’s always nice to have a horse that can be tactical so he can make his own trip.”

Circling the Drain, bred and owned by Sycamore Hall Thoroughbreds, is stakes-placed on both turf and dirt, having run third in the 1 1/16-mile Private Terms March 18 over Laurel’s main track. The West Coast gelding ran third behind Nagirroc’s track-record performance in the one-mile James W. Murphy May 20 at historic Pimlico Race Course, his grass debut, and exits a three-length restricted allowance victory July 8 on the Laurel turf.

Harold Lerner, Nehoc Stables, AWC Stables and Team Stallion Racing Stable’s Mendelssohns March went unraced at 2 and has raced exclusively on turf since finishing sixth in the April 8 Blue Grass (G1) at Keeneland. Second to Grade 1-placed Webslinger in the 1 1/8-mile Audubon June 3 at Churchill Downs, he shortens up after running sixth in the 1 ¼-mile Belmont Derby (G1) July 8.

Big Frank Stable, Enrico Ascione and Mad Dog Racing Stable’s English Painter will be making his stakes debut in the Bald Eagle Derby. Since being purchased privately last fall following a maiden claiming triumph at The Meadowlands, the Munnings colt has alternated wins and losses in five starts for South Florida-based trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

“He’s a hard-trying horse and we think distance is what he really wants. We’ve kind of waited for this race so we’ll give it a try,” Joseph said. “He’s a tall, good-looking, leggy kind of horse that took a little time to grow into his frame. He’s just been ultra-consistent. He won his last race before we bought him and since then he’s been first or second each race. He always shows up and tries.”

English Painter began 2023 with a one-mile, 70-yard starter optional claiming victory on the all-weather surface Jan. 12 at Gulfstream, where he was a neck optional claiming allowance winner going 1 1/16 miles on the grass April 8. He has raced just once since, beaten a neck while second in a 1 1/16-mile starter May 6 on the Gulfstream Tapeta.

“He’s the kind of horse that lacks that true turn of foot, so we think the distance will help him the longer he goes. He is pretty versatile, though he’s probably better on the grass,” Joseph said. “His game is he sits back and makes one run at the end. Going a little further I would think that he would probably be a little tactically closer just because it’s a slower kind of pace, but he’s a horse that’s not going to be on the lead you wouldn’t think.”

Tyler Conner gets the call from outermost Post 8.

Wertheimer and Frere’s homebred Dataman returns to both the grass and stakes company off an 11 ¼-length allowance romp going a mile and 70 yards over a wet-fast main track June 28 at Delaware Park, a race originally carded for the turf.

In a two-week span last fall, he ran sixth behind Major Dude in the Pilgrim (G2) on the Belmont Park turf and fourth to Tuskegee Airmen in the Rocky Run over Delaware’s main track. Jorge Ruiz rides from Post 5.

“I had him as a 2-year-old. He’s grown up a lot. He’s much more professional now than he was last year,” trainer Graham Motion said. “He ran super last time. I wasn’t necessarily looking to get him back on the grass, but I don’t see any other great options for him at the moment. He handles the grass. Hopefully he’s just an improved horse having had some time off. We’ve always liked him.”

Also entered are Morris Kernan Jr. and Jagger Inc.’s Eldest Son, yet to race on turf but with one second in two tries on the all-weather; Ready Made Racing’s Georgie W, a maiden winner on the grass in May at Indiana, where he exits a fifth in the July 8 Indiana Derby (G3) on dirt; and Gary Barber and Team Valor International’s Sirtaki, a three-time winner in his native France making his North American debut.