Stablemates Provide Strength in Numbers in $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go

LAUREL, MD – Three Chimneys Farm’s Bonus Points has run some of the best of his 26 career races over the main track at Laurel Park, winning two stakes and placing in three others. Now 5, he returns to his favorite surface Saturday looking to recapture that form in the $100,000 Richard W. Small Stakes.

The 1 1/8-mile Small for 3-year-olds and up and $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go for fillies and mares 3 and older are among four stakes worth $400,000 in purses on the nine-race program. First-race post time is 12:25 p.m.

A field of eight was entered in the Small including shippers Sunny Ridge, a multiple graded-stakes winner of more than $1.3 million lifetime; Adventist, exiting a victory in the Greenwood Cup (G3) Oct. 5; 2018 Kent (G3) winner Golden Brown, who won a trio of black-type stakes at Monmouth Park this summer; and Laurel-based O Dionysus, a stakes winner on turf and dirt who has made his last eight starts on the grass dating back to last fall.

Bonus Points, based with trainer Mike Trombetta at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., last saw Laurel’s main track when he finished third behind Grade 1-placed Cordmaker in the Harrison E. Johnson Memorial March 16. His last win came one start prior, a neck victory over Grade 3 winner Monongahela in the John B. Campbell Feb. 16. Both races came at 1 1/8 miles for previous trainer Todd Pleetcher.

Overall, Bonus Points owns four wins, four seconds and a third in 11 tries over the Laurel dirt and earned more than half of his $560,434 career bankroll. His last race at Laurel came on the grass, finishing fifth in the 1 1/6-mile Find Stakes.

“He has run some big races on that track, so we’re going to give it a try,” Trombetta said. “He’s a nice horse. Hopefully, we can have some luck with him.”

Bonus Points’ biggest local win came in the 2017 Maryland Million Classic, also finishing second in the 2016 Maryland Juvenile Futurity and 2017 Caveat. That year, he also won the Parx Derby and was second in the Jerome (G3) and third in the Discovery (G3).

In his most recent start, his second straight at Belmont Park, a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance Oct. 25, Bonus Points found himself between horses most of the way and wound up fourth.

“He ran OK last time. The race didn’t have much pace in it and that didn’t help him any. We’re just trying to find the right spot for him,” Trombetta said. “He just needs the right kind of setup to run his best race, and hopefully he gets that this weekend.”

O Dionysus is another 5-year-old Maryland-bred that is exiting a front-running head triumph in the 1 ½-mile Japan Turf Cup Sept. 28. Third in the Find after stumbling at the start, the Bodemeister gelding was sixth in an Aug. 3, 2018 allowance at Laurel – his last try on dirt – but won main track stakes at 2 and 3, the latter in Laurel’s one-mile Miracle Wood in 2017.

“He’s doing fine. All is good,” trainer Gary Capuano said. “He’s training great and he’s doing well; we’ve just got to see if he’ll run on the dirt anymore. We’ll see what happens. Everything’s on go.”

While Sunny Ridge and Adventist will be making their first start at Laurel, Golden Brown finished fourth in last year’s City of Laurel for 3-year-olds in his lone try. All three of his stakes wins this year have come against New Jersey-breds, most recently in the Charles Hesse III Handicap Aug. 25.

James C. Wolf’s Jefazo will be making is 26th career start and first in a stakes in the Small. Claimed by trainer Kieron Magee for $16,000 out of an April 28 win at Laurel, the 4-year-old son of Street Boss – who fetched $300,000 as a 2-year-old in training – has rallied for back-to-back optional claiming allowance wins, one up the rail and one on the far outside, the last coming Nov. 9.

“He was bred to be a nice horse. Jim Wolf picked him out, it wasn’t me. They paid a lot of money for him and his sire was a nice horse,” Magee said. “Jim just took a shot at him. He had decent form and, for $16,000, he was definitely worth it.

“The horse has definitely gotten better. We gave him a little bit of a break and he came back strong after that,” he added. He just came into good form. I can’t put a finger on it, but he just got good. We figured if we were ever going to take a shot, now is the time to do it.”

Bobby G, Han Sense and Roaming Union complete the field.

Stablemates Provide Strength in Numbers in $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go

Beach Diva, Jehozacat and Layla Noor, each winners over Laurel’s main track during their careers for trainer Arnaud Delacour, and Bernie Houghton-trained stablemates Trace of Grace, Trolley Ride and Vault could are all entered the share the starting gate in Saturday’s $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go.

Green Lantern Stables’ Beach Diva owns two wins and a third in three tries at Laurel, her latest effort being her most impressive. She established command from the outset, took a big lead into the stretch and extended it to 5 ½ lengths at the wire in a one-mile optional claiming allowance Nov. 15.

The quick turnaround is a concern for Delacour, particularly since Beach Diva’s effort came in her first race since Aug. 26, when she failed to fire after and inside trip in a similar spot at Delaware Park.

“She ran two weeks ago, but she won pretty nicely in a two-other-than, so I might take a shot,” he said. “I was really happy with her. Coming back in two weeks is always a question mark. She ran very well and I thought she was very fresh because she hadn’t run for a while and was breezing well. I think I’ll take a shot. It would be great to be able to get some black type with her.”

Lael Stables’ Layla Noor has not visited the winner’s circle since an optional claiming allowance win at Laurel in November 2017, part of a solid juvenile campaign where she broke her maiden at Saratoga and ran third in the Demoiselle (G2).

Her latest races have come primarily on turf, though she was a decisive second in an open 1 1/8-mile allowance Oct. 26 at Keeneland in a race that was rained off the grass to a sloppy main track.

“She’s run some OK races on the dirt and I’m kind of running out of options with her toward the end of the year so I will probably take a shot going a mile and sixteenth,” Delacour said. “Her numbers on the dirt are good enough to be competitive so I might take a shot. The two turns at Laurel is kind of a long race to me because of the long stretch and everything, so she’ll probably like that. And she’s won once over there on the dirt. It was a long time ago when she was a 2-year-old, but I think she could do well.”

Jehozacat broke her maiden in July 2017 and finished sixth after being jostled at the start of the Smart Halo Stakes that November in her only two races at Laurel. Like Layla Noor, she has been mostly a turf horse with 10 of her 14 lifetime tries coming on grass.

“In a dream world I’d have a one-turn race, like a mile or seven-eighths,” Delacour said, “but I don’t really have that available so I might take a shot with her as well.”

Trace of Grace, Trolley Ride and Vault are all based with Houghton at Penn National. Trace of Grace, 6, has raced in 13 previous stakes with two wins, and was second in the 2018 Thirty Eight Go Go. Trolley Ride finished third in an open allowance Nov. 1 at Laurel at the Thirty Eight Go Go distance, while Vault will be making her Laurel debut.

Shamrock Babe and Stormologist are also entered.