Connections Hope to Continue ‘Journey’ in $75,000 Challedon Sept. 9; 136 Entered for Saturday’s Races
Connections Hope to Continue ‘Journey’ in $75,000 Challedon Sept. 9; 136 Entered for Saturday’s Races
136 Entered for Saturday’s Races
In the Navy Now Returns to Stakes Competition in $75,000 Shine Again
Laurel’s Year-Ending Fall Meet Opens Friday, Sept. 8
LAUREL, MD – Though R. Larry Johnson’s homebred It’s the Journey has always been consistent, finishing in the top three in 10 of 14 lifetime starts, it’s his current form that led his connections to take another shot at stakes company in Saturday’s $75,000 Challedon at Laurel Park.
The $75,000 Challedon for 3-year-olds and up and the $75,000 Shine Again for fillies and mares 3 and older, both at seven furlongs for non-winners of a sweepstakes, highlight a 12-race program on opening weekend of Laurel’s 60-day fall meet that runs through Dec. 31.
A total of 136 horses were entered on Saturday’s card, an average of 11.3 starters per race. Seven races are scheduled for Laurel’s 142-foot, six-lane, world-class turf course with the remainder over its newly refurbished main track.
First race post time is 1:10 p.m.
It’s the Journey, a gelded 4-year-old son of 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft bred in Maryland, last tested stakes waters as a 2-year-old, finishing third in the 2015 Maryland Juvenile Futurity in his third lifetime start.
This year, he has won four of eight starts with two seconds and a third, and enters the Challedon on a three-race win streak dating back to mid-June, all at Laurel, where he has a career record of 12-4-3-1.
“He’s been genuine all along, but he’s at a different level now,” trainer Mike Trombetta said. “We tried him two turns and that didn’t seem to be to his liking and then we backed up and things started going his direction. His last three starts or so he’s kind of really jumped up and been performing at a little bit of a higher level.
“With that being said, in this race he’s going to have to. That’s kind of what happens with these kind,” he added. “This was the logical progression. It’s non-winners of a sweepstakes on a track that he seems to like, so here we are.”
It’s the Journey captured an entry-level allowance against state-breds June 11, then stepped up to win an open company allowance July 7 prior to his most recent effort, a 2 ½-length second-level optional claiming allowance score where he led most of the way under jockey Alex Cintron, who returns to ride from far outside Post 7. All horses will carry 118 pounds.
Trombetta, coming off a summer meet where he led all Laurel trainers with more than $515,973 in purse earnings, has had It’s the Journey throughout his 14-race career but can’t explain the gelding’s recent upward progression.
“I’m not quite sure, to tell you the truth. He’s just really been in a good place and running fast and running hard. I hope he can continue to do so,” he said. “Usually [horses are] faster at 4 than they were at 3 and more at 3 than 2. He’s kind of a little further down the road to really come into his own but it’s not unheard of.”
Summer meet training champion Claudio Gonzalez will send out BB Horses’ Afleet Willy in the Challedon, another hard knocker that has finished first or second in 15 of 21 lifetime starts, eight of them wins. Over the winter at Laurel, the 4-year-old Wilburn gelding made a bid but wound up sixth in the General George (G3) then was beaten a head by Linda Rice-trained Matt King Coal in the Harrison E. Johnson Memorial.
“He had run some really hard races and he needed a little break when you run against that competition,” Gonzalez said. “When he lost to the horse of Linda Rice at a mile and an eighth, he gave everything to win the race and he ran big. That’s why I wanted to give him a little time off because he needed it.”
Gonzalez gave Afleet Willy five months between races before bringing him back in a one-mile optional claiming allowance Aug. 14 at Delaware Park, where he was pressed all the way on the front end and stayed up to win by a head as the favorite.
“He ran big that day. They went really fast the first quarter and half a mile, they run in 46 and went really, really fast, and he held on,” Gonzalez said. “For him to not run for a long time and then run that big was good. He came back good after the race and he’s training really good, that’s why we decided to run.”
Afleet Willy will have regular rider Victor Carrasco aboard from Post 6. Carrasco led Laurel’s summer meet standings with 36 victories.
“He has really good position on the outside,” Gonzalez said. “It’s good because he doesn’t need the lead. He doesn’t need to go to the front so if he can be in the clear on the outside it’s going to be perfect for him. There’s a couple of horses that have a lot of speed.”
Also entered in the Challedon are Ivery Sisters Racing’s Anytime Anyplace, racing second off the claim for New York-based trainer David Cannizzo; multiple stakes-placed Rockinn On Bye and Final Prospect, most recently third and seventh, respectively, in the Coalition Aug. 26 at Timonium; Furyofthenorsemen, making his first start since being claimed for $32,000 Aug. 4 by trainer Lacey Gaudet; and Red Dragon Tattoo, fifth in the Jan. 21 Native Dancer in his lone Laurel start.
In the Navy Now Returns to Stakes Competition in $75,000 Shine Again
Her last try against stakes competition resulted in R. Larry Johnson and R.D.M. Racing Stable’s In the Navy Now being demoted to second for drifting out in the stretch of a one-length victory over stablemate A.P. Majetstic in the 2016 Weber City Miss at Laurel.
The 4-year-old Midshipman filly didn’t race again until May, returning with a late-running head victory in a six-furlong allowance at Penn National. Winless in three tries since, she returns to stakes company in the $75,000 Shine Again.
In the Navy Now’s comeback victory May 4 was her first race at a sprint distance since December 2015 and just the fourth overall. She was third and beaten a neck in a pair of second-level optional claiming allowances going a mile and 70 yards in Pennsylvania before running third by three lengths to Shine Again rival Bombshell in a similar spot at about 1 1/16 miles Aug. 11 at Laurel.
Julian Pimentel has the call on the In the Navy Now from Post 7 of 13 at 118 pounds, four fewer than topweight Momameamaria.
“She’s been training good. It’s a cutback in distance for her but I think if she gets a lively pace, which she should probably get in a big field, she could probably find her way to run on and maybe get lucky and get a piece of it,” trainer Mike Trombetta said.
“You always worry about the cutback but she’s won at three-quarters and she’s won at a mile and a sixteenth,” he added. “Some horses find these middle distances to work for them, and some don’t. You have to go ahead and jump in and try it.”
Trainer Kieron Magee entered the pair of Cornelius Ridgely’s Boheme de Lavi and Sheffield Stable’s Line of Best Fit. Boheme de Lavi, a 6-year-old Graeme Hall mare, will be making her 49th career start in the Shine Again and first since being re-claimed by Magee out of a half-length loss Aug. 12 at Delaware.
“I’ve had her two or three times before. She finished second in the stake last year,” Magee said. “She’s one of those horses that tries all the time. She likes to run on the outside. We’ll take a look at the race and talk with the owners and see what they want to do, but I’m sure they’ll want to give it a shot.”
Boheme de Lavi rallied to be second at odds of nearly 14-1, beaten 1 ¼ lengths, in last year’s Shine Again, and is the only horse to return from the 2016 running. An eye injury kept her away from the races for three months but she has raced 11 times this year with three wins, having changed hands four times.
“She came out of the race and had a spot on her eye and we worked on it. WE sent her up to New Bolton and we did save the eye, but we lost a lot of vision in there,” Magee said. “She’s a cool horse. She’s really a sweetheart. The owners have had her with me a couple of times. When she got put back in last time they sent me a text and said, ‘Go get our baby.’”
Line of Best Fit is a 15-time career winner from 39 starts who picked up some black type when third by three lengths behind recently retired champion Songbird in the Delaware Oaks (G1) July 15. The Shine Again comes just five days after the 7-year-old Trajectory mare was second by a nose in a 6 ½-furlong allowance on closing day of the Maryland State Fair meet at Timonium.
“We probably could have pushed out on the first turn and the rider didn’t and left himself nowhere to go, and the winner got a move on us. We were sitting off of it and had to check and hit the brakes a little bit going into the second turn and we couldn’t make up the ground,” Magee said. “She’s a warrior. She’s just a warrior. She leaves it all on the racetrack.”
Angel Serpa is named on Boheme de Lavi from Post 4 while J.D. Acosta, Timonium’s leading rider with 14 wins, has the call on Line of Best Fit from Post 6, both at 118 pounds.
Also with a pair of entrants are trainers Gary Capuano and New York-based Jimmy Jerkens. For ZWP Stable, Inc. and Non Stop Stable Capuano is set to send out Elusive Joni, third by a length in the May 20 The Very One on the Preakness (G1) undercard at historic Pimlico Race Course, and multiple stakes-placed Lucky in Malibu, a rallying fourth in the six-furlong Miss Disco Aug. 19 at Laurel last out.
Jerkens is sending Team Valor International’s Bombshell, a winner of two straight capped by a front-running optional claiming allowance triumph going about 1 1/16 miles Aug. 11 at Laurel, and Joseph V. Shields Jr.’s Summer Reading, whose multiple stakes placings include a second in the six-furlong Skipat May 19 at Pimlico.
Grade 3-placed Stormy Sky; Momameamaria, fourth in the seven-furlong Shine Again Aug. 9 at Saratoga; Lake Ponchatrain, Summer House, Super Sharp and True Romance complete the field.
