Contrarity Captures First Juvenile Race of Season Saturday
Contrarity Captures First Juvenile Race of Season Saturday
Shimmering Aspen May Be Stakes-Bound After Impressive Win
McFarlane Registers First Training Victory Friday
LAUREL, MD – Danny Limongelli’s Contrarity, making her career debut, broke running and led all the way for a front-running half-length victory in the first juvenile race of the season Saturday at Laurel Park.
A bay daughter of Yesbyjimminy, ridden by Katie Davis for trainer Hugh McMahon, Contrarity ran 4 ½ furlongs in 53.36 seconds over a fast main track in the $40,000 maiden special weight sprint that kicked off the 11-race program.
“It was amazing. I think it was actually my first ever 2-year-old race and I kind of got lucky with that one when it came down to picking her up, because with [McMahon] you’ve got to be right there at the right time,” Davis said. “She is something special.”
Davis sent Contrarity from Post 4 with Sammy Be Cool to her inside and was quickly joined by Shape of You, the only one of eight fillies in the field to have started previously, to her outside. Contrarity and She Runs Hot quickly opened up on their rivals and raced side-by-side through an opening quarter-mile in 23.01 seconds.
The top two stayed together and continued to gain on the field around the far turn before Contrarity began to edge away after straightening for home. She extended her advantage over Shape of You while Sing Dixie Charge put in a steady late charge along to the rail to get up for second, two lengths ahead of Shape of You.
Sent off at 15-1, Contrarity returned $32 to win. G’s Treasure, Cotton Eye Girl, Sammy Be Cool, Pauline’s Raven and She Runs Hot completed the field.
“Before the race Hugh was like, ‘Have you ever been to Charles Town?’ I said, ‘All the time. 4 ½ [furlongs], that’s my specialty,’” Davis said. “He said, ‘How you ride there, ride here. Just send her, go, don’t look back.’ At the top of the stretch I knew I had it, because her little legs move so quick. You can feel that.”
Shimmering Aspen May Be Stakes-Bound After Impressive Win
Hillwood Stable’s Shimmering Aspen cruised to her third consecutive victory in Saturday’s featured eighth race, an impressive front-running performance that may land her in stakes company for her next start.
Shimmering Aspen ($3.80) was never threatened from her rail post under a hand ride from jockey Steve Hamilton, drawing off effortlessly in the stretch to win by seven lengths in 1:23.25 for seven furlongs. The Malibu Moon filly was favored at 4-5 in the $45,000 second-level optional claiming allowance, her second straight win against older horses.
“I was very, very pleased. That was her fourth start and she’s a 3-year-old against older horses and I thought she did it awful easy,” trainer Rodney Jenkins said. “I haven’t seen anything kind of head her since her maiden start [when she was third]. I love her. She’s a heckuva filly.”
Jenkins said the $150,000 Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3) at six furlongs or even the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) at 1 1/8 miles, each restricted to 3-year-old fillies, could be on the horizon for Shimmering Aspen. Both races will be run May 19 at historic Pimlico Race Course.
Shimmering Aspen, a daughter of multiple stakes-winning mare Aspenglow, was purchased by Jenkins for $200,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale at Timonium Fairgrounds in October 2015.
“I had planned back when I first bought her to run her in the Miss Preakness. She went seven-eighths today in a cruise, so I don’t know. I’ll make a decision here before long, see how she comes back and we’ll do what’s right by her,” Jenkins said. “If she can go the mile and an eighth … she went that seven furlongs like breaking sticks. He never even asked her, really. He took hold of her the last eighth of a mile. When you to that caliber of a race, a Grade 2 race, you’re going to have other horses that can run, too. We’ll see.”
McFarlane Registers First Training Victory Friday
Narrow Leaf Farm’s Momma Doolittle forged a short lead approaching the stretch and powered down the lane to win by 2 ½ lengths and give Brandon McFarlane his first career training victory in Laurel Park’s third race Friday.
Ridden by Jevian Toledo for the second of his three consecutive wins, Momma Doolittle ($17.80) ran seven furlongs in 1:26.16 over a fast main track in the $18,000 maiden claiming sprint.
It was the 11th career start and 10th at Laurel’s winter-spring meet for McFarlane, a former assistant to Dane Kobiskie, Maryland’s leading trainer in 2011 and a multiple meet champion.
Momma Doolittle, a 3-year-old Scipion filly, was racing for the fourth time at the meet, having finished second by three-quarters of a length in her previous start March 12. In addition to being McFarlane’s first winner, Momma Doolittle also has the distinction of being his first starter, finishing sixth at Laurel on Jan. 22.
“It feels pretty good,” McFarlane said. “I thought we were home the whole time, but I’ve had bad luck with this filly every time, so we finally just got the job done.”
Notes: Jockeys Alex Cintron, Steve Hamilton and Feargal Lynch each notched riding doubles Saturday. Cintron won aboard Majestic Trick ($5.40) in the second race and Giovanna Blues ($12) in the fourth, Hamilton was first with Chapel Gap ($30.60) in the third and Shimmering Aspen ($3.80) in the eighth, and Lynch scored with Jarvis Steel ($11) in the fifth and Fly ($8.80) in the 10th.
